It is no longer mandatory for people to sign up for new Trident digital Barbados I.D. card if they don’t want to.

This has been disclosed by Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology, Marsha Caddle, as she delivered a ministerial statement on the matter in the House of Assembly today.

She noted that Barbados moved to implement the new digital ID card in line with an international decision in 2017 that countries across the globe would make the switch to due to the threat of identity theft and other issues

Ms. Caddle stressed that given the increasing number of online transactions and the risk of exposure, smarter and more secure digital identification is required.

But she also believes that the response from Barbadians in signing up for the new Trident card has been so overwhelming, there’s no need to force the relatively small number of holdouts to make the switch if they don’t want to.

Therefore there is no longer a deadline for the switch.

Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology, Marsha Caddle.