ID card applications more than half-way to goal of 300 000

By Shamar Blunt

Just under 200,000 Barbadians so far have registered for the new Trident ID card.

This was revealed by Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology (MIST), Davidson Ishmael, to Barbados TODAY at the end of Export Barbados’ (BIDC) Long Service Awards & Spotlight Awards Ceremony held at Sandals Barbados on Friday.

Minister Ishmael said that despite some technical difficulties in the earlier stages, the uptake for the new IDs has been progressing well. He made the comments hours after Government announced that there would be an extension until June 30 for those yet to sign up for the new card. The validity of the old identification cards was originally supposed to expire on March 31.

“As of yesterday [we] had about 190,000 people who have registered for the card. Those numbers are well past the 50 per cent mark of our goal which is 300,000 citizens of Barbados, so we are pleased with how things are progressing. Of course we know that there was a mad dash and a mad rush by many who would have been aware that March 31st was the intended deadline.

“We still have some persons who for varying reasons have not been able to go and go through the registration process. Of course we know as well we had some technical issues with our online registration portal, [which] would have provided another level of convenience for quite a few thousands more Barbadians. We are trying to rectify those issues, and because of all of that we realised that it would have been useful and wise for us to go forward and offer an extension,” he explained.

In recent weeks there has beenpublic outcry in some quarters about the new cards with some complaining about the motive behind the instrument and questioning its security. The minister stressed that the new Trident card, along with the new digital ID card were strictly intended to significantly increase the level of security for citizens using it as their main form of identification.

“I want to underscore for Barbadians that we are replacing your physical blue ID card with a highly secure, better, more fit-for-purpose ID card. There is the intention in due course to introduce a digital ID. We are not at that point yet, so a physical ID is what persons are going forward to register for. It’s what persons are collecting in their hundreds of thousands and we are satisfied that this is the best thing for Barbadians at this point in time.”

When asked which demographic so far has been keen on the new card, Minister Ishmael revealed that despite younger persons generally being more keen on net technology, older Barbadians have for the most part been most comfortable with the new platform.

“What we would have found is that the older demographic – persons above 50 – those were the persons that at the early part of this process would have readily gone forward and registered for their card. We understand that is because a lot of those individuals have always had an ID card; they understood from 1979 that when you were a child that you would go and get an ID card once you turned 16 years old.

“It is a very normal foundational part of who we are as Barbadians to have an ID card. So it’s not surprising then that we would have had a lot of our more mature citizens who would have gone forward very early.”

shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb