With the help of Estonia, the tiny island nation of Jamaica is looking to establish its region’s first e-government system.
The Jamaican prime minister, Andrew Holness, said in a statement that his administration was committed to establishing the first fully digitised government system in the region.
“Every single Jamaican will have an account in the national database in the national civil registry. That account will hold your identity information, and that…will allow you to be verified and authenticated in all the databases that are held across government,” the Holness said according to the Jamaican government information service.
Services accessed online
Earlier in June, the executive director of the Estonian e-Governance Academy, Arvo Ott, told the Jamaican leadership about Estonia’s achievements in transforming the delivery of services to the public through the use of technology.
The Jamaican prime minister said his government wants to follow Estonia’s lead, where 90 per cent of government services can be accessed online. He also highlighted the convenience of paying taxes online, which can save Jamaicans the hassle of joining long lines to transact business.
The Jamaican government plans to roll out the National Identification System, or NIDS, in 2018. The NIDS will provide a “comprehensive and secure structure to capture and store the personal identity information of all citizens. Under the system, which will have anti-fraud features, every Jamaican will have a unique identification number,” the government said in a statement.
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The cover image is illustrative.
