Accurate Population Data Key to Targeted Social Aid Distribution, Says Home Affairs Minister
Minister of Home Affairs Muhammad Tito Karnavian has affirmed that accurate population data is the primary basis for achieving precisely targeted social assistance (bansos) distribution.
The commitment was underlined during a working visit to Biak Numfor Regency, Papua, over three days, from Friday (31 July) to Sunday (2 August).
Tito stressed that the problem of mistargeted social assistance can be overcome through the integration of accurate and verified population data.
“With that system, it can identify more precisely and accurately who is eligible to receive social assistance and who is not,” said Tito on Friday (31 July), while giving directives to the Biak Numfor Regency Government at the Regent’s Office Complex, Brambaken, Samofa District.
He explained that data updating is focused on people in deciles 1 to 4, as the priority group of recipients of various government social protection programmes. According to him, the use of biometric data will improve the accuracy of determining beneficiaries while minimising the potential for distribution errors.
Biak Numfor is one of the national priority areas for expanding the implementation of the Electronic-Based Government System (SPBE), targeted to be operational before mid-August 2026. For this reason, Tito asked all regional apparatus, village officials, and Posyandu cadres to play an active role in supporting the data updating process to be carried out by technical teams in the field.
During the working visit, Director of PIAK Muhammad Nuh Al Azhar led a kick-off meeting on bansos digitalisation with the Biak Numfor Regency Government.
Nuh emphasised the importance of local government readiness in preparing accompanying agents who will spearhead the data collection process for prospective social assistance recipients.
“The success of social assistance digitalisation depends not only on the application or technology used, but above all on the quality of the population data that forms its foundation,” said Nuh.
He reminded all accompanying agents to ensure that every piece of data collected from the community is accurate, up to date, and has gone through a validation process.
According to Nuh, the population data managed by the Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration (Dukcapil) is the single identity reference that forms the foundation of SPBE as well as the main reference for various public services, including bansos distribution.
The use of the National Identity Number (NIK) combined with biometric verification allows the validation of beneficiaries to be carried out more precisely, thereby minimising duplicate data, fictitious identities, and recipients who no longer meet the criteria.
According to him, Dukcapil will continue to strengthen collaboration with regional governments through the provision of secure data, technical guidance, and the use of the Population Administration Information System (SIAK) Dashboard to support continuous data updating.
“Bansos digitalisation is not merely about changing manual processes into digital ones, but about building a public service ecosystem based on a single set of population data,” said Nuh.
According to him, the uniform use of population data as a reference across agencies will produce public services that are faster, more precise, efficient, transparent, and accountable.
As a follow-up to the visit, Dukcapil together with the Biak Numfor Regency Government organised a technical class for officials from the Population and Civil Registration Office, the Social Affairs Office, and the Communications and Informatics Office. Dozens of participants were appointed as bansos digitalisation agents and received direct guidance in operating the prospective recipient registration application via smartphones.
In addition to training, Dukcapil also handed over several forms of technical support to the Biak Numfor Regency Government. These included Starlink VSAT devices based on low Earth orbit satellites, encrypted name-by-name-by-address (BNBA) data along with decryption guidelines, and access to the SIAK Dashboard to support real-time monitoring and updating of population data.