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JAM | Nov 17, 2024

300 persons to begin receiving NIDS cards Monday

/ Our Today

administrator
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Governor General Sir Patrick Allen (left), in discussion with Chairman, National Identification Registration Authority (NIRA), Bishop Conrad Pitkin. The occasion was the official launch of the NIRA on Friday, November 15, 2024, at the Central Sorting Office (CSO) in Kingston, where the Governor General enrolled and received his national identification card. (Photo: JIS/Michael Sloley)

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.

Chairman, National Identification Registration Authority (NIRA), Bishop Conrad Pitkin (right), observes as Prime Minister, Dr Andrew Holness (second right), removes his newly printed national identification card from a machine at the NIRA, located at the Central Sorting Office (CSO) in Kingston, on Friday, November 15, 2024. Others looking on (from left) are: Executive Director, Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD), Dr Christine Hendricks; Director General, Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Dr Wayne Henry, and Card Machine Operator, Rog-Jae Seymour. (Photo: JIS/Michael Sloley)

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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