Caribbean Business Reports

Productive Business Solutions (PBS) (Barbados) Ltd recently inked a deal with Barbados’s Ministry of Innovation Science and Smart Technology (MIST) to officially kick-start the country’s Digital ID and National ID Card Replacement Project.

The signing took place at the ministry’s office at Baobab Tower in Warrens, St Michael.

“PBS will be the supplier of software, ID cards, printers and professional services for the project, which is estimated to last four months,” a release from MIST stated.

A major transformational initiative of Government, the Digital ID and National ID Card Replacement Project will provide user authentication in online transactions and facilitate the signing of documents electronically.

The system will also facilitate the secure electronic transfer of information for a range of activities, including e-commerce, Internet banking and e-communications. It will use new smart card technology (plastic cards with embedded computer chips) as well as mobile phone technology to enhance the security and integrity of Barbados’s National ID system and support a wide range of public and private sector services.

“PBS will be the supplier of software, ID cards, printers and professional services for the project, which is estimated to last four months.”

Ministry of Innovation Science and Smart Technology, Barbados

Both MIST and the Electoral Department will implementation oversight over Digital ID and National ID Card Replacement Project.

For the PBS group, however, the Barbados digital ID project will is not the first it has agreed to implement within the Caribbean. In its 2019 annual report, CEO Pedro Paris shared that the group had secured the ” The National ID for Jamaica” project.

A history of performance and growth

Established in 2001 in Jamaica, PBS has set up shop in the wider Caribbean and Latin America region, with its headquarters in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

The group holds exclusive distributorship for Xerox Holdings Corporation in several Latin American and Caribbean countries and maintains regional distribution agreements with other world-leading technology brands such as Cisco, Oracle, and HP.

Listed on both the Jamaica and Barbados stock exchanges, the group reported net profit after tax of US$2.09 million for the year ending December 31, 2019, far exceeding US$134,000 earned in the year prior.