Toni’s ID plan different to govt’s

 LAE MP Loujaya Toni’s biometric identification project for the district is not recognised by the national government’s E-ID card project, project director Roko Koloma says.

Koloma said the E-ID was a national project and covered the whole country.

“The system is universal and all ID cards will be uniform,” Koloma said.

Asked if the two systems could be integrated, Koloma said they could explore the possibility but they needed to identify the developer of the proposed Lae biometric system first.

He said National Planning Minister Charles Abel “was going to talk to  Toni” about the issue last week.  

Toni has committed K5.6 million of her Lae district services improvement programme fund for the project.   

E-ID Huawei Technologies deputy manager Raymond Anthonysaid the system would identify the 7.1million citizens of the country and provide information that will be invaluable to the national government’s development plans.

A standard identification cardsimilar to IDs issued by companies will be issued to people aged 17 and above, Anthony told a workshop in Lae last week.

“That is the mandatory age bracket for candidates that qualify for an E-ID,” Anthony said.