The Economic Community of West African States launched a project to upgrade their existing hand written laissez-passer documents to electronic travel documents meeting ICAO standards. The Austrian State Printing House (OeSD) was awarded the contact based on their secure and cohesive end-to-end concept and their appealing design of the documents.

Each of the 15 ECOWAS member states is represented in the graphical design, which consists of a complex interaction of security features of all levels. The map on the data page for example, reveals hidden information. When magnified, the country names of the member states together with their capital cities are displayed in very fine line text of micro size.

The chip bearing photo and fingerprints, as well as personal details is embedded in the back cover of the booklet.

Data of the eligible staff members are captured in the ECOWAS headquarter in Abuja with the option of mobile enrolment, as the equipment can be packed into a suitcase. So applicants can also enrol in regional ECOWAS offices, when the enrolment staff schedules a visit. Personalisation of the booklets is located in the headquarters in Abuja only.

The ECOWAS laissez-passer is another project where OeSD successfully proved expertise, know-how and management skills for a small-scale highly sensitive and secure electronic document project.