GOB Wants Your Say on ‘National ID’ Plan

Belizeans are being urged to help shape the country’s proposed National ID system. Officials are moving to address concerns and gather input before rollout.

Public consultations begin next week, with sessions scheduled in Orange Walk on April 23 and Belize City on April 24. Organisers say the process is to both inform the public and invite feedback to enhance the plan.

“The process that we’re doing requires the help of our Belizean people,” said Tremett Perriott, the Change Management Manager within the Ministry of E-Governance in Belize.

“We don’t have all the answers, and our hopes are that people will give us something other than what we are thinking,” Perriott added. “they can help us make the system better.”

The National ID aims to replace multiple identification cards with a single, unified system. Perriott explained that Belize’s current setup is “fragmented”, with agencies operating separate systems that do not connect seamlessly and rely heavily on “manual” record-keeping.

“The rationale is to amalgamate all of those cards all over the place” into one, he said, while clarifying that it will not remove “the need for the records” themselves.

“You may not need the physical IDs. However, the records of those are still needed in the required systems,” he added.

The proposed ‘one ID’ system has drawn mixed reactions, with some Belizeans raising concerns about privacy and data use.

Those concerns, Perriott said, are exactly what the consultations are meant to address. “Come out and ask those hard questions. We need it,” he added.