The State Minister for Internal Affairs Gen David Muhoozi launched the pilot phase of Uganda’s new mass national ID enrollment and renewal exercise, following the successful delivery and distribution of upgraded biometric registration equipment.
Speaking at launch at the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kampala, Gen. David Muhoozi, confirmed that the pilot phase will run from 2nd to 26 May, 2025 to allow the Electoral Commission to complete the National display exercise.
According to Gen Muhoozi, the government secured a new system that introduces several improvements, including online pre-registration of biographical data and the addition of iris scanning as a biometric identifier.
He explained that the upgraded system consolidates previously fragmented services by integrating birth and death registration processes into one streamlined platform adding that in its initial phase, the system will handle new registrations, renewals, corrections or changes in personal information, replacements, and issuing of first-time IDs to children aged 16 and above
Executive Director of NIRA Rosemary Kisembo said ID renewal, new registrations for children under 18 and new adult applicants are free of charge, corrections or changes in personal details will cost UGX 200,000, while replacement of lost or damaged cards will cost UGX 50,000.
She stated that in the first three to five weeks of implementation, applicants can expect to receive their IDs within four weeks of successful registration.
The National Identification and Registration Authority signed a contract on July 8, 2024, with Tahaluf AI Emarat Technical Solutions for the procurement of 5,665 biometric registration kits, two high-capacity card production machines capable of printing up to 100,000 laser engraved cards daily, and data center equipment including 5 racks, 80 servers, firewalls, and other communication tools among others.
Report by: Betty Zziwa
