The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMAS has been urged to establish “a common standard” for the electronic delivery of government services, with this nation enjoying “one of the strongest connectivity bases” in the region to support the digital and artificial intelligence (AI) era.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in its latest Caribbean quarterly bulletin, argued that The Bahamas can make “swift progress” if the necessary laws and “institutional structure that prioritises innovation and digital technologies” are implemented.

Noting that The Bahamas was the top-ranked out of six Caribbean countries, including Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, at 99th in the world in 2024 when it came to the Government’s AI readiness, while also being rated as the region’s closest to OECD levels of broadband development and penetration, the IDB report added that this nation has made much of the required investment.

It analysed this nation’s digital public infrastructure progress based on three area - development of a digital identity to enable Bahamians to prove who they are, a digital payments system, and the exchange of data between different government agencies.

“Although the three digital public infrastructure elements advance at different speeds, progress could be swift if the legal foundation and an institutional structure that prioritises innovation and digital technologies are in place,” the multilateral lender added, noting the creation of the Ministry of Innovation and National Development headed by Sebas Bastian.

“Across both digital public goods, and programmes that use digital technologies for interventions, The Bahamas has made all the necessary investments, and the legal and regulatory frameworks are mostly in place, albeit more advanced in some areas than in others.”

Setting out potential reform and improvement priorities for The Bahamas, the IDB urged that the existing My Gateway platform for the delivery of digital government services, such as driver’s licences and passport renewals, which has 120,921 users and handled 222,168 transactions for 19 agencies, develop and publish a common service standard for all of the 135 products and services offered.

“Publish the rules of the systems already built,” the IDB argued. “This would apply to the operating framework of the data exchange platform, and the standard of service for MyGateway. Both are missing documentation needed for their implementation.

“MyGateway, for example, could send citizens reminders and persuasion messages for various agencies such as passport renewal, tax services, etc. A common standard would apply to all agencies, replacing the agency-by-agency discretion that currently governs response and resolution times.”

It also called on the Government to better monitor and measure the effectiveness and efficiency of its digital platforms, adding that updated data on the Click2Clear Customs system, for example, is lacking.

“Where uptake is measured, as in Upskill Bahamas, telehealth and MyGateway, the numbers support further investment. Where it is not, as with Click2Clear, last reported in 2020, valuable programs go unrecognised,” the IDB warned, also urging this nation to “complete the legal foundation for digital identity”.

“A road map, an implementing office, a dedicated ministry and a modern data protection statute are all in place. What remains is a law establishing credential status, enrolment mechanisms and grievance redress mechanisms,” the IDB added.

“The precedent exists, as Parliament legislated a biometric credential at the border in 2025. The pay-off to adoption reaches beyond identity itself - systems that today work around the gap, such as Click2Clear relying on the National Insurance Board card, would finally have a general credential to draw on…

“None of these efforts require new technology, only the documentation and reporting that could turn existing investments into visible, accountable services.” The IDB report described digital government, and the development of a national digital identity system, as “the area of greatest promise”.

It added: “The country has already placed many public services online and built a significant part of the infrastructure that connects them. What remains is a credential that allows residents and businesses to prove who they are and then reuse that verification across agencies.

“This would make the existing digital infrastructure more useful by allowing the same identity verification to be reused across multiple government services and, potentially, private sector transactions. Research on Latin American and Caribbean governments documents large efficiency gains from digital transactions, with processing times falling by 74 percent and institutional delivery costs slashed by at least 44 percent.

“Neither estimate is a forecast for The Bahamas, but both illustrate the potential gains from reusable digital identity. These gains could extend to banks, insurers and fintech (financial technology) entities, which must repeatedly verify customers,” the IDB continued.

“A trusted government credential could reduce these costs and complement the Sand Dollar and fast payment trail by providing a common means of establishing identity. The geographic structure of The Bahamas makes this particularly relevant: Digital transactions cannot eliminate distance, but they can reduce the number of interactions for which distance matters.

“For Family Island residents, establishing identity once and reusing it across services could therefore lower the recurring cost of accessing government across the archipelago.”