Gov’t advances national e-ID card rollout with new data-protection laws

─ full roll-out to begin once the laws are enforced

The government is moving ahead with plans to introduce the national electronic identification card (e-ID), with the first cards expected to be issued before the end of the year.

Registration for the e-ID cards has already begun voluntarily for state employees.

Speaking on his Issues in the News programme, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, said the information captured during the voluntary phase avoids collecting deeply personal information and is limited to data already held in public records.

“What the process is not taking from citizens is the type of information that is deeply personal, and data protection laws are passed to protect. This is not private, peculiar information, so no personal medical data, personal financial data such as bank accounts and those types of peculiar data have been uplifted from anyone,” AG Nandlall said, dismissing claims that the rollout of the e-ID cards poses a threat to citizens’ privacy.

The exercise collects data including a person’s name, address, national ID number, passport number, Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), photograph, driver’s licence, marriage certificate, birth certificate and deed poll documentation.

The Minister of Legal Affairs added that the rollout is supported by two critical pieces of legislation designed to safeguard citizens’ personal data – the Digital Identity Card Act and the Data Protection Act.

Both critical legislations were passed in the National Assembly two years ago.

“Those two pieces of legislation demonstrate our government’s vision and commitment to digitisation and using data and digitisation in the transformational developmental trajectory that the government has embarked upon in Guyana,” the AG said.

He noted that an expert writing in the Barbados Nation publicly commended Guyana’s Data Protection Act, describing it as a strong model for the region.

The Attorney General stated that the government began issuing digital ID cards before the law was fully in place. This helps authorities test the system and enter basic information while setting up the necessary infrastructure.

“These legislations require centres to be established from one end of Guyana to the other in every administrative region,” the AG explained.

Each centre, he added, must be equipped with specialised machinery and staffed by trained personnel.

Minister Nandlall emphasised that because the laws are not yet in force, participation in the early rollout is optional.

“Once all the processes are in place, and the personnel are in place and the mechanism to administer the full implementation of the legislation, then the legislation will be brought into force, and these processes will be unfolded in accordance with the law, and then it will become obligatory to be part of the process,” he said.

He added that Guyana intends to adopt the same digital tools used in advanced economies, ensuring the country is equipped to manage data securely as it modernises.