Uganda: Internal affairs minister Maj Gen Kahinda Otafire addresses the press Tuesday, flanked by Rosemary Kisembo, the executive director of NIRA. He said that starting next June, the country will migrate to improved and user-friendly National IDs due to the improvement in technology and demands of modernity. PHOTO NIRA MEDIA
Minister says Ugandans will get the new national IDs free of charge
The National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) will start a new round of the national identity card registration exercise for all Ugandans in June next year, as the current IDs expire in 2024.
The new National ID will contain several new features, but will contain most of the bio data already captured, including the current NIN.
The cards will be issued free of charge, except for those who will be seeking express processing.
The Internal Affairs Minister, General Kahinda Otafiire disclosed the details of the new ID plan while speaking to journalists at the government-owned Media Center on Tuesday. This was hours after NIRA had termed as fake, reports that cabinet had made a decision to immediately scrap current IDs .
He explained that the current National IDs have a life span of ten years, which is elapsing in 2024. Otafiire revealed that in 2024, the country will migrate to improved and user-friendly National IDs due to the improvement in technology and demands of modernity.
He explained that starting in 2014, they issued National IDs with a life span of 10 years knowing that there would be technological innovations requiring the change of features on the IDs.
According to Otafiire, the new National ID will contain several new features, which wouldn’t necessarily require the change of the current NIN.
“Your NIN does not cease. The bio-data that was captured does not change, we shall only improve the variables captured on your ID,” he told the press.
He revealed that all Ugandans will get the new national IDs free of charge, adding that only those in need of express national IDs can apply via the internet and pay a fee of sh50,000.
“We are doing our level best to make sure that every Ugandan is registered and given his identity and every child who is born is registered and given a national identification number and also given means of identity,” Otafiire stated.
