Fiji Plans National Digital ID Program

The Fijian government is preparing a national digital ID program, officials have announced. A “National Digital Identification (ID) Program” was discussed in a recent Cabinet meeting, with the aim of enabling businesses to easily verify customer identities.

Speaking to domestic media after the meeting, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka explained that a “national ID card steering committee will be established to oversee the management, governance, legal and policy frameworks” for the program.

“The first phase will see the introduction of electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) by the Reserve Bank of Fiji,” the Prime Minister added.

The news comes after the Fijian government announced a National Digital Strategy toward the end of last year. The project would be led by the Ministry of Communications, in partnership with the the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations agency responsible for issues related to information and communication technologies.

The Fijian government explained that its National Digital Strategy would be built on GovStack, a platform championed by the ITU, the government of Estonia, and the Digital Impact Alliance to create a standardized, open-source digital government infrastructure. GovStack is meant to simplify and accelerate the digital transformation of public services by providing modular, reusable building blocks that can be implemented across various government functions.

GovStack’s digital identity building block can integrate biometric technologies for the identification and authentication of citizens, but it isn’t yet clear if this tech will have a place in Fiji’s planned national digital ID system.

Source: The Fiji Times

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June 24, 2024 – by Alex Perala