Some Barbadians resisting digital ID that’s still in planning stage

The Caribbean island nation of Barbados is pressing ahead with its digital ID plans despite some friction among citizens.

Speaking before representatives of 10 neighboring island nation, a Barbadian minister boasted that the country’s two-phase program to make digital IDs a reality is progressing.

Davidson Ishmael, Barbados’ minister of industry, innovation, science and technology, was speaking at the inaugural Caribbean Digital Summit.

Phase one is getting an updated ID card – called the Trident ID — in citizens’ hands “in the very near future,” he said, according to regional news publication NationNews. A quarter of a million people have applied to get the new ID, Ishmael said.

And although a digital ID is still only a facet of the second phase, he admits there is resistance to it.

Ishmael told his peers that some are complaining that they are being forced to adopt the digital ID.

He reportedly said, “we are not forcing anyone to get a digital ID.” It is more likely that the government will be working to make a digital ID attractive enough that when phase two begins, most Barbadians will want to have.

In fact, a program called the Digital Barbados Youth Forum was formed to win hearts and minds and to increase its inclusiveness, according to Barbados Today.

The nation picked HID Global in February 2022 to make its biometric passports.

Article Topics

Barbados  |  biometrics  |  Caribbean  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital public infrastructure  |  Trident ID