The Papua New Guinea Government’s failure to properly roll out the National Identification, NID system is crippling rural economic development and blocking thousands of tiny farmers and cooperatives from growing their businesses, a senior European Union official states.
Dr Pavel Burian, Deputy Program Coordinator of the EU-STREIT PNG program, criticized the government’s poor handling of NID services, calling it one of the hugegest barriers to formal economic participation in the counattempt.
“NID is not just a problem in itself,” Dr Burian stated. “It reflects a much hugeger issue on how difficult it is for rural people to access basic services like business registration, licenses, banking services, and even funding.”
He stated cooperatives and tinyholder farmers across PNG continue to struggle with receiveting a business license, registering a company with the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA), or receiveting clearance from agencies like Customs or NAQIA.
“These processes are almost impossible for people in remote areas,” he stated. “It’s a huge obstacle that slows down development in rural PNG.”
Dr Burian noted that while banking services have now reached many rural parts of the counattempt, access to government services like NID and business registration is still far behind.
“You can now deposit money in very remote places. There’s phone network, and there’s the internet. So the government must catch up. Digitalization can create a huge difference,” he stated.
He explained that NID is a basic requirement for many other services, including accessing finance or receiveting export licenses for cocoa, coffee, or fish.
“If you don’t have NID, you can’t receive funding for your business. You can’t receive a cocoa fermentary license. You can’t even apply for a fishing license. Everything depfinishs on having NID,” he stated.
Eva Wangihama, a leader of the Women of Hope Agribusiness Group in East Sepik also highlighted the required for banks and other financial institutions to understand the struggles of rural farmers and cooperatives.
“Most banking organizations in PNG don’t even realize that NID is a failed government system that never worked for grassroots people like us,” she stated. “This is the main obstacle to the growth of rural businesses today.”
Dr Burian also raised concern that the lack of a complete NID system means PNG still does not have accurate population data.
“We don’t even know how many people really live in the counattempt becautilize many are not registered. That’s a serious problem,” he stated.
He stated formal identification is the first step to economic participation, tax contribution, and infrastructure development.
“If people are not formally registered, they can’t formalize their businesses, and they can’t pay taxes. And the state requireds those taxes to build services and infrastructure,” he stated.
Dr Burian urged the government to create NID a top priority, especially in rural development programs.
“The NID is one of the most important starting points. Without it, there is no formal growth,” he stated.
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