KAMPALA.
The National Identification and Registration Authority (Nira) has announced that it will on May 27 start renewing expired National Identify cards and issuing new ones to Ugandans.
Under this renewed mass enrollment exercise , Nira will start with its own top leadership and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and ordinary Ugandans will follow suit .
Ugandans who have never been registered before and those whose IDs have expired will be given new cards for free while whose who lost them ,will be required to pay Shs50,000 through the bank and also obtained a police letter to be considered at the 146 administrative units across the country . Those who want to change particulars on their cards will have to part with Shs200,000.
The country’s first batch of cards was issued between 2014 and 2015, while some expired in August 2024, and another batch of the cards will expire this August.
Launching the latest phase of mass enrollment in Kampala on Monday ,Gen David Muhoozi, the state minister for internal affairs, revealed that Nira’s target is to renew up to 15.8 million cards that are set to expire in August this year .
“ Nira says it targets to register 17.2 million new ones, bringing the total up to 33 million Ugandans ,currently the National Identification Register contains biographic and biometric records of 27.7 million Ugandans, including those whose identity cards are set to expire by August this year ,”he said
In August 2022, the Cabinet approved the mass enrollment and renewal exercise to renew a total of 15.8 million cuts that are expiring in June 2025. However ,many of these cards have already expired.
“And you remember at one point we had to use a statutory instrument to extend the life of those IDs so that people are not disrupted in what they do because the ID is held in service delivery. That is pending this launch of the new ID. Another goal of the exercise is to register 17.2 million,” he said.
The minister revealed that government has already procured up to 5,665 biometric registration kits from Tahaluf Al Emarat Technical Solutions, which the company delivered in January this year . He said the equipment is already available across the country .
“We have also procured two-card production machines with a combined printing capacity of up to 100,000 laser-engraved cards per day,” he said