Madam Speaker, in this our 60th year of independence we are embarking on Project BirthRight, under the NIDS Project. Through the program, the NIDS Project in collaboration with the RGD will develop, implement and promote outreach programmes at the RGD’s branch offices and across various communities for registering needy, undocumented Jamaican nationals. Eligible participants will receive their birth certificate free of cost. Project BirthRight will provide free birth certificates for undocumented Jamaicans with less than J$37,000 household income monthly. We have allocated J$50,000,000 for this project and expect it to benefit over 11,000 undocumented eligible Jamaicans over the course of this year.

There has been the acquisition of a software to manage monies disbursed from the OPM to implementing agencies. This, Madam Speaker, will be rolled out within the 2nd quarter of this fiscal year (2022/2023).

JSIF has embarked on the Integrated Community Development Programme (ICDP), which includes the Safe Passages Project. This multi-parish project improves infrastructure on roadways around schools in multiple communities to reduce accidents with children and will benefit 7,859 persons.

The first NIDS enrolment site in Kingston is to be ready by August 2022. An additional five pilot sites in Kingston will also be ready before year end. Continuing on a steady trajectory, and expanding beyond the pilot in Kingston and St. Andrew, an additional eight sites will be ready by early 2023 in Greater Portmore, Mandeville, Old Harbour, Black River, Morant Bay, Ocho Rios, Port Maria and Montego Bay. And of course, all other parish capitals will see an additional eleven enrolment sites installed by Mid 2023.

Already we have procured 60 purpose-built tablets which will be distributed to our registration officers for utilisation.

The digitisation process at the RGD will incorporate the services of forty (40) HEART NSTA/HOPE graduates. These graduates will be trained by Fujitsu’s experts and certified and will help form the backbone of our digitisation journey across the Government.

On Friday, May 6, 2022, we announced a US $4 million dollar ($612,000,000.00) contract to digitise over 2 million of the RGD records with funding from the NIDS project in the Office of the Prime Minister. Fujitsu Caribbean (Jamaica) Limited has been contracted and has already started the work to install the necessary infrastructure at the RGD’s head office to facilitate digitising records created from 1930 to the present.

We are now moving to procure a new registration software solution that will link birth, marriage, deed poll, and death records for the first time.

Madam Speaker, the TEF is partnering with the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) to improve the infrastructure (road, water, sewage) for tourism workers currently residing in the informal settlement of Grange Pen, St. James… The project is currently in the construction phase and is approximately 67% completed… Madam Speaker, this transformational project will be completed in the 2022/23 Financial Year.