National ID distribution kicks off

Dec 03, 2014

The long awaited issuance of national Identification Cards commences today, three months after the initial set date for the exercise.

By Alfred Wandera

The long awaited issuance of national Identification Cards commences today, three months after the initial set date for the exercise.


“The first batch of cards will be issued to those Ugandan citizens who successfully registered at enrolment centres in the Capital City,” Internal Affairs minister Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, said.

He added: “The issuance in other districts will be carried out progressively over the next nine months. The roadmap for the progressive issuance will be unveiled at the launch ceremony.”

Aronda urged the public to support the exercise by participating in accordance with the guidelines that will be issued, saying it is a long awaited intervention in addressing the challenge of citizen identification.

He added that the issuance of national IDs will enable government to plan properly and provide easy access to a wide range of social services and facilities to the citizens.

The exercise was supposed to kick off in September but the strategy was reviewed from the initial strategy of issuing the IDs at Sub-Counties to mass issuance at the Parish level, according to the National ID Project’s Assistant Manager for Communications, Paul Bukenya.

Bukenya recently told New Vision that the decision to start with mass issuance is informed by lessons learnt during mass enrolment that established that mass issuance would be more efficient and cost effective.

The initial project strategy had envisioned issuance of IDs in smaller quantities starting September. In August, the ID registration process shifted from mass enrollment to continuous registration, effectively bringing the registration exercise at the parish levels throughout the country to an end.

 

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