The Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce of T&T (Am­cham T&T) has ap­plaud­ed the sign­ing of what it de­scribed as a ground-break­ing agree­ment to in­tro­duce the lo­cal­ly de­vel­oped e-KYC (elec­tron­ic Know Your Cus­tomer) plat­form, brand­ed No­bis, by the Na­tion­al Pay­ment and In­no­va­tion Com­pa­ny of T&T (NPIC-TT), Unit Trust Cor­po­ra­tion (UTC) and the Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of T&T (TSTT).

The plat­form would al­low cit­i­zens to ver­i­fy their iden­ti­ties and open ac­counts en­tire­ly on­line.

The sys­tem re­places tra­di­tion­al in-per­son ver­i­fi­ca­tion with a faster, more se­cure, and pa­per­less process—part of the Gov­ern­ment’s wider plan to mod­ernise na­tion­al pay­ment sys­tems and pub­lic ser­vice de­liv­ery.

The in­tro­duc­tion of No­bis holds sig­nif­i­cant promise for both the pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tors, as Am­cham T&T said busi­ness­es would now ben­e­fit from faster on­board­ing, low­er com­pli­ance costs, and more ef­fi­cient ser­vice de­liv­ery, while gov­ern­ment agen­cies can en­hance trans­paren­cy, re­duce ad­min­is­tra­tive de­lays, and im­prove cit­i­zen ac­cess to key ser­vices.

To­geth­er, these ben­e­fits would boost na­tion­al com­pet­i­tive­ness, sup­port fi­nan­cial in­clu­sion and ac­cel­er­ate the growth of the lo­cal dig­i­tal econ­o­my, Am­cham T&T added.

The busi­ness or­gan­i­sa­tion added that it al­so takes par­tic­u­lar pride in this de­vel­op­ment, as the in­tro­duc­tion of a sin­gle-KYC frame­work has been an ini­tia­tive long cham­pi­oned in its en­gage­ments with the Gov­ern­ment.

“The es­tab­lish­ment of No­bis rep­re­sents a tan­gi­ble step for­ward in re­al­is­ing that vi­sion—one that sup­ports both gov­ern­ment and pri­vate in­sti­tu­tions to im­prove ef­fi­cien­cy.

“Am­cham T&T com­mends the col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­forts among all stake­hold­ers in­volved in mak­ing this ini­tia­tive a re­al­i­ty. The part­ner­ship demon­strates the strength of pub­lic-pri­vate co­op­er­a­tion and show­cas­es Trinidad and To­ba­go’s po­ten­tial to in­no­vate and de­liv­er world-class tech­nol­o­gy so­lu­tions that are home-grown and scal­able,” Am­cham T&T added.

In a re­lease on Oc­to­ber 22, NPIC-TT said the agree­ment is a de­ci­sive step to­wards a ful­ly dig­i­tal fu­ture.

Built lo­cal­ly by the In­no­v­a­tive Cen­tre—the tech­nol­o­gy arm of NPIC-TT—No­bis lets cit­i­zens ver­i­fy iden­ti­ty and open ac­counts on­line. It re­places man­u­al, in-per­son checks with a faster, se­cure, pa­per­less process that aligns with gov­ern­ment’s push to mod­ernise na­tion­al pay­ments and pub­lic ser­vices.

“Our cus­tomers want con­ve­nience with­out sac­ri­fic­ing trust. Through this col­lab­o­ra­tion, UTC can now on­board in­vestors com­plete­ly on­line, while main­tain­ing the same lev­el of com­pli­ance and se­cu­ri­ty our in­sti­tu­tion is known for,” UTC’s ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor Nigel Ed­wards had said.

Un­der the agree­ment, TSTT will pro­vide the se­cure telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions and cloud in­fra­struc­ture to sup­port the plat­form’s na­tion­al roll­out. Act­ing CEO Keino Cox de­scribed the project as proof that lo­cal col­lab­o­ra­tion can dri­ve mean­ing­ful in­no­va­tion.

“This is about na­tion-build­ing through tech­nol­o­gy. TSTT is proud to de­liv­er the back­bone that will keep the eKYC plat­form re­silient and se­cure. It shows that when lo­cal or­gan­i­sa­tions come to­geth­er with a shared pur­pose, we can de­liv­er re­al trans­for­ma­tion,” Cox said.

Dawn Nel­son, who heads the In­no­v­a­tive Cen­tre, said the project show­cas­es Trinidad and To­ba­go’s own en­gi­neer­ing tal­ent. “NO­BIS was de­signed and built right here in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Nel­son not­ed. “It’s scal­able, se­cure, and meets in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dards—a strong state­ment of what our lo­cal teams can ac­com­plish.”

Be­cause the In­no­v­a­tive Cen­tre de­vel­oped the sys­tem on be­half of the Na­tion­al Pay­ment Com­pa­ny, the same eKYC tech­nol­o­gy will be ex­tend­ed free of charge to all min­istries and state agen­cies. The move is ex­pect­ed to make it pos­si­ble for cit­i­zens to ap­ply for pass­ports, re­new dri­ver’s li­cences, pay gov­ern­ment fees, and ac­cess oth­er pub­lic ser­vices on­line—all us­ing one ver­i­fied dig­i­tal iden­ti­ty.