Ministry of Home Affairs has said that work will commence soon to make the Maldivian Identity Card a smart Identity Card.
Home Minister Dr Mohamed Jameel said that this change would result in people’s fingerprints being included in the cards, which would facilitate several services.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Mohamed Fayaz said that they are considering collaborating with the Police or National Registration to obtain people’s fingerprints.
He also said that the idea is to change everyone’s cards to smart cards at the same time.
“Obtaining fingerprints would be a big project. We are assessing the best way to do this. One way is to collaborate with the Police. Or it can be done by National Registration,” Fayaz said.
He did not disclose any details of when this would be done, or how.
Referring to challenges faced previously to issuing Identity Cards, Dr Jameel said that there was a queue of 23,000 of people waiting for Identity Cards when the new government took over; however this number has been reduced to 3,000. Out of this, about 1,000 cards which do not involve any sort of problem, will be completed soon.