The Bahamas government is moving ahead with a national digital identity system intended to give citizens and businesses a single secure credential for accessing government services and verifying who they are. The digital ID is the identity core of a wider digital economy push that also includes dedicated artificial intelligence legislation and a national digital-skills program.
The credential is being positioned as foundational infrastructure rather than a standalone app. The government frames the national digital ID as a way to reduce duplication across agencies and improve verification, so that a resident can prove their identity once and reuse it to reach public services instead of repeating the process at each department. That single-credential model is the same approach a number of governments have taken as the entry point for digitizing service delivery.
The AI and skills tracks are being advanced alongside the identity work. The government is developing a dedicated AI law that would set governance structures for regulation and risk management, and has announced a nationwide AI training program aimed at public servants, students, and workers, positioned as a response to a shifting global labor market. The three strands are presented as a single program meant to keep the country competitive rather than as separate initiatives.
“We are not putting paperwork on a screen. We are reinventing how government works,” said Sebas Bastian, Minister of Innovation and National Development, who also argued that a nation that cannot run, understand, or sustain its own systems is not truly independent. The framing ties the digital ID to a sovereignty argument as much as an efficiency one.
The Bahamas joins a wave of Caribbean digital identity programs taking shape across the region. Turks and Caicos has been advancing a World Bank-backed national digital ID program, and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank has backed a digital ID system to broaden financial access across the Eastern Caribbean, part of a broader regional move toward foundational digital identity.
The government describes the national digital ID, AI law, and skills drive as steps it is advancing rather than completed systems, setting the direction for the country’s digital economy plans.
Sources: Eyewitness News
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
