The National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), is in the process of phasing out the current National Identification cards in favor of new ones by 2024, says Internal Affairs Minister, Gen Jeje Odongo.
Odongo told the media that the development was already in the pipeline and urged the new NIRA Executive Director, Rosemary Kisembo to see to it that the changes are implemented by the year 2024.
“We expect a new and enhanced identity card by 2024. The journey has already begun but we would like you to grab the bull by the horns so that by 2024 we have a new card with an electronic chip and other new features,”Odongo said on Friday at the function where Kisembo officially assumed her new role.
“We want an enhanced national ID that will enable people move to other countries easily but also enable them transact business.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the function, the Internal Affairs Minister said the new ID will have new readable features.
“The new ID that we envisage in 2024 will have enhanced features and most likely we will have it digitalized so we will be able to hold more data on that same facility(ID).It will be more a little robust than we have now,” Gen Jeje Odongo said.
On whether the new IDs, like the current ones will have an expiry date, Odongo said the government was still deliberating on the matter, with a decision not yet arrived at.
“We will determine whether that will be a necessary requirement for the new identity card but as we speak now we have not yet determined whether it will have an expiry date.”
The National Identification project has been hit by a number of bottlenecks since it’s inception about 6 years ago. With a population of over 40 million people, only about 25 million are registered with NIRA, representing just a little over 55%.
With National IDs a mandatory requirement for an individual to access most public services, just a section of the population are in possession of the highly coveted document, a shortfall NIRA leaders attributes to personnel and funding shortages.
In 2015, after setting up of the National Identification and Registrations Authority(NIRA),government started mass registration of citizens for issuance of the national Identity Cards.
But Minister Odongo used the Friday event to call on the new Executive Director to set up an all inclusive registration drive for all Ugandans and subsequently issue them with the Identification cards as it’s their right.
The issue of the National IDs bearing an expiry date has been a contentious one, with MPs protesting and accusing government planners of trying to use it as an avenue to swindle government funds through a recurrence of the procurement of IDs every after ten years.
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