PNG says soon-to-launch digital ID will grow GDP, remove trade barriers

The launch of Papua New Guinea (PNG’s) national digital ID labelled “SevisPass” is now very close, the Minister of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Timothy Masiu said this week, adding that the expected economic and social dividends from it will be enormous.

Masiu was speaking at the Artificial Intelligence Summit 2025 in the country’s capital on April 7.

According to the minister, the SevisPass, if properly implemented, will bring several gains to PNG, including potentially growing the GDP from between three and five percent in the next five years, bringing in about 2 million new customers in the banking, telecoms, and digital trade sectors by easing identity verification; increasing government revenue through compliance with tax procedures; enabling digital inclusion for about four million rural poor; facilitating digital voting in the country’s 2027 elections, as well as enhancing border control  through a centralized ID verification mechanism. The SevisPass will be integrated with the country’s national identification database.

“SevisPass will serve as a Digital Public Infrastructure, enabling secure authentication across banking, telecommunications, and government systems. It will also unlock Single Sign-On access to a wide array of services, including the upcoming SevisPortal, a G2C digital services app that will host up to 15 citizen services—from eVoting to school fee subsidy applications—in one platform,” Masiu said in remarks contained in an ICT ministry release.

Aside the digital ID program, the minister also explained other initiatives which the government has been implementing since 2019 under different plans aimed at building a solid digital future for the country. He also gave updates on the progress of work regarding a national AI adoption strategy that’s being drafted to guide AI use in the country.

“We have pursued an ambitious digital transformation agenda grounded in clear and deliberate policy instruments, including the Digital Transformation Policy 2020, the Government Cloud Policy 2023—which has already seen the onboarding of over 146 government agencies to our government cloud infrastructure—the Data Governance and Protection Policy 2024, and the Cyber Security Strategy 2024, which advances the work of our National Cybersecurity Centre,” he outlined.

Many of the current initiatives, he added, align with the objectives of the Digital Government Plan 2023-2027, which is anchored on three major initiatives, namely streamlining trade and business licensing, e-procurement, and an e-cabinet system which aims at digitizing the executive decision-making process.

Masiu held that with the contribution of the digital ID to PNG’s economy projected to be immense, the government must increase its investment in the project.

“Despite the progress we’ve made, SevisPass has faced funding challenges in 2024, including a K7 million [US$ 1.7 million] budget shortfall. To fully realize its impact, investment in Digital ID as a national digital public infrastructure must be prioritized,” Masiu appealed.

PNG’s digital transformation got a boost recently with a digital payments deal from Visa and the setting up of a digital signature platform by SigniFlow.

Article Topics

digital economy  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital inclusion  |  digital public infrastructure  |  digital wallets  |  Papua New Guinea  |  SevisPass  |  SevisPortal