New National Project Launched Under NIDS

A new National Public Key Infrastructure (NPKI) project has been launched by the Government under the National Identification System (NIDS) programme.

The launch took place on Wednesday (January 15) at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel, in Kingston.

The NPKI project will be rolled out during the next seven months, with the objective of making Jamaica a more digital society in which there is ubiquitous use of information and information and communications technology (ICT) in all spheres, such as home, work, school and recreation.

This project will enable trusted electronic identities for people, services and things, and make it possible to implement strong authentication, data encryption and digital signatures, based on a certifying authority.

Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Hon. Fayval Williams, said the NPKI project will have numerous benefits to Jamaicans, based on the Government’s legislative plans for a digital society.

“The National Public Key Infrastructure is one of the pillars of the ICT platform that will enable us to be able to use secured [original] signatures online to do business,” Mrs. Williams said.

She noted that the new system will ensure that Jamaicans authenticate themselves online, which will reduce time and travel and guarantee that messages coming from an individual, or documents sent electronically, are really coming from whom he or she claims to be.

“That is where increased productivity will come in, because instead of taking two days to go to the United States of America and back to sign one document, you can sign it here and do other things that you need to do,” she said.

The NPKI project will be rolled out in association with the various government agencies, such as the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) and eGov Jamaica Limited.

Mrs. Williams said the activities that will be undertaken through the NPKI project will, among other things, bolster the Government’s ICT infrastructure, make the systems more resilient to cybersecurity threats, and improve the ICT infrastructure of the very first mover, PICA, to implement electronic passports.

“From PICA, in terms of the e-passport, it’s a higher level of security with the passport. [The e-passport] will make it easier when we travel to be able to check through airports, because those airports that we [Jamaicans] go will have the confidence that the Jamaican authority has securely identified this person with the e-passport document coming through,” she said.

“We will have an easier passage of travel going through globally,” the Minister pointed out.