Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green
January 27, 2022
Green urges Jamaicans to sign-up for ‘one identifier’ NIDS
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaicans are again being encouraged to sign-up for the National Identification System (NIDS), as it will eventually provide the catalyst for citizens to have one card that will allow them to access a multiplicity of services.
At the same time, the NIDS card is also being hailed as efficient and safe, with security breaches being unlikely.
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Currently, citizens rely on a multiplicity of identification cards, such as driver’s licence, Tax Registration Number (TRN) card and passport.
“The vision is to reach a stage where you have a requirement for only one source, one real identifier,” disclosed Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Floyd Green, who was speaking at a tTech Data Privay Panel discussion on Thursday.
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That one source — the NIDS card — will eventually “capture all the critical information you will need to capture every business that you want to do,” according to Green.
He explained that, “We want to reach that stage where if you if you have a driver’s license, you won’t need a different card; that information will be on our National Identification System, and as such, when you ask for your driver’s licence, all you need to show is your National Identification Card, because the information will be there.”
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“We’re already moving in that regard with our TRN (Tax Registration Number) card, and we want to move throughout our various services, our various certificates, licences that can capture one database, so, that again, we don’t need that multiplicity that leads to inefficiency and also that leads to potential security breaches,” Green declared.
Pointing to the example of a regular Jamaican man from rural Jamaica who comes to Kingston and has to travel to multiple places to give the same information about himself, Green contended that that process was “frustrating quite frankly”.
“When we look at what is happening around the world and how far digital transformation has gone, how the conversations now are about the metaverse, and how do you access that, and [then] you look at where we are [in Jamaica] with so many of our processes still being manually-based, we realise that we have a far way to go,” he said.
“For us, this verifiable database of identity, which has your biometric information, which can ensure that if you go to one place you have the information can be transmitted to another place without you having to make that journey, will make life much easier,” Green assured.
“We not there yet. It will take some time, but I think it is very good for Jamaica to recognise that is the overarching vision to make our lives easier,” he added.
To aid in that goal, the minister expects that a public education campaign will also commence soon.
“The [National Identification] system is now voluntary, so we will go on the road to make people know why it’s going to make their lives easier, but also we’re not just doing that without taking into account the critical elements of protecting their data, especially with all that it is happening in the world,” informed Green.
In the meantime, Green revealed that in order to ensure the seamless roll-out of NIDS in relation to the one identifier element, an implementation taskforce will be operationalised.
The taskforce, he explained, will take critical technology officers from across various government ministries that will look at the foundation of NIDS, and examine the various services that need to be digitised to ensure that when an individual has their NIDS card, they can unlock various services.
Further, Green said that taskforce will also comprise a subcommittee that will focus on communication.
“I’ve already said to the team that that system will be broad-based. I want it not just to include technical people from the ministries, but to include public [and] private sector, NGO groups, youth and women [groups], and [the] disabled community, so that we communicate to everybody,” he said.
Green is expecting that by February, the implementation taskforce will be unveiled, and he assured that “the government will not be cutting any corners in the implementation of the National Identification System”.
“The message [to Jamaicans] is sign up as soon as you get the opportunity. Let us get the digital transformation of the Jamaican society done,” urged Green.
