THE National Identification Systems (NIDS) project has committed significant investments to the system upgrade and strengthening of the Registrar General’s Department’s (RGD) national civil registry, in preparation for its roll-out.

The RGD is being revamped as the National Identification and Registration Authority to carry out the management of the NIDS, in addition to civil registration.

Project coordinator for the RGD transformation, Charlton McFarlane said among key activities to be undertaken in preparation will be the digitisation of RGD records, which is expected to result in significant efficiency gains.

“For the digitisation project, the first thing we did was a research to determine how many records are there to be digitised. We are now in the process of preparing the request for proposals so that we can go to tender in the very near future to get assistance and technical expertise,” he said.

McFarlane, who was addressing a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank, further noted that funds have also been set aside for the procurement of a new civil registration system.

“We are upgrading our business processes and looking at how we can automate several of our systems which currently are manual and not as efficient,” he said.

The RGD will also bring a consultant on board to review its civil registration system as well as its operational procedures.

McFarlane said the RGD was also partnering with the NIDS project to identify and register Jamaicans who are not currently registered, through islandwide engagement activities. The first outreach session was held on June 20 in Linstead, St Catherine, and saw the registration of some 500 persons.

The next outreach will be in September in St Thomas.

“Over the next 18 months we intend to go across the length and breadth of Jamaica and have several outreach activities that will target these undocumented individuals,” he said.