Official Launch of the National Identification Registration Authority and Issuance of Cards
Remarks
By
Dr. The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP
Prime Minister of Jamaica
At the
Official Launch of the National Identification Registration Authority and Issuance of Cards
On
November 15, 2024
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This is a moment long in coming and one that the entire Jamaican people can be proud of. As a nation, we have been talking about a national ID from as long ago as in the ’70s. Several Cabinet submissions and pieces of legislation were drafted, but we have never found the wherewithal to actually engage in and complete the process.
I must thank all the persons who have worked long and hard to have the National Identification Card brought to this point. And I want to thank the NIRA, (National Identification and Registration Agency), for the incredible work that they have done in bringing the project to this point. I also want to thank the NIDS team out of the Office of the Prime Minister who also worked very hard across several agencies and collaborated with our international partners and I specifically want to acknowledge the IDB, who have been very supportive of this project.
We are now at the point where we can now actually print and deliver the national ID card, and today, I’m pleased to have been the second person to receive the national ID card, the first being His Excellency, the Governor General. I’m encouraging all Jamaicans to participate in this very important chapter in our nation’s history where every Jamaican can have a secured national ID.
We have several identification documents. We have passports, we have our electoral ID, we have our driver’s license but as you would have seen earlier in the demonstrations that we had a chance to observe, none of them have the level of security that this card gives. But this card also gives an additional benefit. It allows for the conduct of digital transactions in a seamless way because it allows for digital electronic verification of the card and that places us now in another step which we call the digital society. So, the NIDS provides the basis on which we can now claim to be a digital society.
The digital society is one in which we are able to conduct transactions physically in person or virtually. And in fact, as all Jamaicans will see, most transactions are moving onto digital platforms. We conduct our transactions using digital platforms every day, whether it is we shop online, we pay taxes online, but with your digital ID, you will be able to do much more.
The second important benefit of the card is the reduction of time it takes to conduct a transaction. Consider that you want to open a bank account and you’re new to the bank, the bank has all kinds of regulations that make it mandatory that they know their customer and that know your customers’ requirements sometimes can be very involved. You are required to take in two or more forms of identification. You may have to have a justice of the peace verify your identification and then when that is brought in, they may take a few more days to actually check to see that this is so.
With the national ID, there is no need for that anymore. The verification of identification is almost instantaneous and therefore the law that supports the ID says that if you present your ID, no other form of identification is required. Let me repeat that. When you present your NIDS card, your national identification card, no other form of identification is required because this card has the ability to verify your identity on the spot. Now, that will just reduce, not just the time, but the cost of identity verification and that then puts Jamaica in another threshold of the digital society.
I’m very pleased today and I’m going to be speaking more obviously about the card, promoting the card, and I’m very happy to see that our youngsters have been some of the first beneficiaries because the card is also built, the entire system is built to accommodate our youngsters as well as adults. It is meant to give every Jamaican verifiable and secured identity documents.
So, today is a great day. We have now issued the first set of national identification cards and the process begins in earnest.