E-Kyash and E-Governance; What Do They Have in Common?

Kevin Bernard

What does the introduction of E-Kyash mean for government’s transition to e-governance?  In attendance at this morning’s launch was Minister of Sports and E-governance, Kevin Bernard.  He says the new app is in line with the digital transformation of public services that are offered by the Vital Statistics Unit, as well as the Lands Department.

Kevin Bernard, Minister of E-Governance

“We have been constant discussion with Belize Bank and even the National Bank who you are aware is also trying to develop their own e-wallet.  But I think this is very critical.  Those legislations that we passed recently also supports this type of initiative in terms of digital transformation across the country.  We are, at the ministry, working very closely in terms of getting some of the services, like Vital Statistics, Lands Department, your police record.  You know, we’re looking at the company registry and trying to come up with a national ID at some point down the road in terms of the digital road map that we’re setting out and definitely these types of services will support e-governance and our digital transformation strategy that we are putting forward.  The issue is that we want to make citizens lives easier using technology, using digital options and so having somebody to be able to conduct a transaction online using E-Kyash or a digital wallet platform, whichever… and, you know, the ease of this is that people don’t necessarily need to have a bank account at that institution in order to be able to conduct that service.  So it will make it easier for us to be able to work with a platform.  Now to say that the Government of Belize through the Ministry of E-governance will decide which organization’s e-wallet we will use, maybe there’s an option that we can use every one of them.”