Home Minister: Accurate Population Data Key to Targeted Social Aid in Biak Numfor

Home Minister Muhammad Tito Karnavian has stated that accurate population and civil registration data is the primary foundation for ensuring social assistance is precisely targeted in Biak Numfor Regency, Papua. He stressed that the problem of misdirected social aid can be resolved through the integration of accurate and verified population data. “With this system, we can read more precisely and accurately who is eligible to receive social assistance and who is not,” said the Home Minister in a statement in Jakarta on Tuesday. The remarks were made while giving directives to the Biak Numfor Regency Government at the Bupati Office Complex in Brambaken, Samofa District. The visit was not merely ceremonial but part of efforts to accelerate the implementation of the Electronic-Based Government System (SPBE) while strengthening the use of biometric population data as the basis for determining social aid recipients. The Home Minister explained that data updating is focused on communities in deciles 1 to 4 as priority groups for various social protection programmes. According to him, the use of biometric data will improve the accuracy of beneficiary identification while minimising potential distribution errors. Biak Numfor is one of the national priority areas for the expansion of SPBE implementation, which is targeted to be operational before mid-August 2026. Therefore, the Home Minister requested that all regional apparatus, village officials, and Posyandu cadres play an active role in overseeing the data updating process carried out by technical teams in the field. He also emphasised the importance of the regional government’s readiness in preparing accompanying agents who will be the spearhead of the prospective social aid recipient data collection process. “The success of social aid digitalisation does not solely depend on the application or technology used, but especially on the quality of the population data that serves as 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 undergone a validation process. According to Nuh, the population data managed by the Directorate General of Dukcapil serves as a single identity reference that is the foundation of SPBE as well as the main reference for various public services, including the distribution of social aid. The use of the Population Identification Number combined with biometric verification allows the beneficiary validation process to be carried out more precisely, thereby minimising duplicate data, fictitious identities, or recipients who no longer meet the criteria. Furthermore, he affirmed that the Directorate General of Dukcapil will continue to strengthen collaboration with regional governments through the provision of secure data, technical assistance, and the use of the Population Administration Information System Dashboard to support continuous data updating. “Digitalising social aid is not just about changing manual processes to digital ones, but about building a public service ecosystem based on one population data,” he said. According to him, the uniform use of population data as a reference across agencies will result in public services that are faster, more precise, efficient, transparent, and accountable. As a follow-up to the visit, the Directorate General of Dukcapil and the Biak Numfor Regency Government held a technical class for officials from the Dukcapil Office, Social Office, and Communication and Informatics Office. Dozens of participants were appointed as social aid digitalisation agents and received direct assistance in operating the application for registering prospective aid recipients via smartphone. In addition to the training, the Directorate General of Dukcapil also handed over several technical support items to the Biak Numfor Regency Government, including a VSAT Starlink device based on low earth orbit satellites, and encrypted data by name by address along with its decryption guide, as well as access to the SIAK Dashboard to support real-time monitoring and updating of population data.