After several years in the making, the national identification bill was introduced in Parliament this week, and if all goes accordingly, this ID can be used to vote, a hospital card, driver’s license and can also be used as the Samoa National Provident Fund card.
Before being submitted for Parliament’s consideration, this bill went through a lengthy process, including public hearings out in the villages led by the Bureau of Statistics since 2021.
The former Government initiated the National ID project, where over $10 million was budgeted for a census, and each registered public member received $50, down to infants.
This initiative was in collaboration between several Ministries, aside from the Bureau, there is the Ministry of Communications, Information & Technology and the Ministry of Finance, with additional funding of US$ 5 million from the World Bank under the Samoa First Recovery and Resilience Development Policy Operation in support of critical reforms in the areas of National Digital ID.
Minister for the Bureau Leota Laki Sio cited the importance of having Samoa’s national ID, which caters not only for identification but also to opportunities for social development assistance.
During deliberation, Member of Parliament Sulamanaia Tauiliili Tuivasa raised concerns that this initiative should have been a priority to the Fiame Administration.
While supporting the proposed measure, Sulamanaia questioned chiefs with several chiefly titles and whether all those names will be displayed on the national ID. He also asked about the system’s security, which will house information for every Samoan. Parliament continues today.
