Three hundred persons who were enrolled in the National Identification System (NIDS) pilot project will begin receiving their cards on Monday, November 18.
“Thereafter, there are other persons who have indicated, [and] we have in the system, that they would like to have their national identification card, and they will be next,” said Chairman of the National Identification Registration Authority (NIRA), Bishop Conrad Pitkin.
“As of January, when we would have completed all those who have indicated and are in our system, we will open to the public,” he further informed.
Bishop Pitkin was speaking on Friday (November 15), during the official launch of the NIRA at the Central Sorting Office (CSO) in Kingston.
The NIRA is responsible for overseeing Jamaica’s civil registration and national identification systems. The entity will handle the layered rollout and management of NIDS.
Bishop Pitkin advised that there are 24 NIDS enrolment centres across Jamaica. He said contracts have been signed for eight, “and those will be commissioned first”.
“We are in the process of signing another 15 contracts, and so before the middle of the year, we should have all our service centres across Jamaica ready. I am pleased to announce that there will be a mobile unit [to] reach persons in deep rural Jamaica,” he said.
Bishop Pitkin said the NIRA will be working with the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD) to ensure that the disabled community is served.NIDS provides a reliable and secure way of verifying a person’s identity.
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