Why you need ID to register SIM card

What you need to know:

  • NIRA also wishes to inform all Ugandans who have never registered that continuous registration for national IDs is ongoing at NIRA offices located in all the districts in the country as at July 2015, and for those in Kampala, at the NIRA offices located in the five KCCA Division offices.

The National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) wishes to clarify on a number of issues raised by Mr Patrick Gukiina in Daily Monitor of April 13 titled “Go slow on Sim card registration with use of national IDs”.
The writer argues that the registration exercise was flawed and had many foreigners registered while Ugandans did not, and asks how many Ugandans have national IDs vis-a-vis foreigners.
NIRA wishes to reassure the country that the process of registering citizens, which commenced in 2014 with the mass registration for national IDs, is proceeding well and the establishment of the National Identification Register is well on course.

To date, a total of 16,784,405 Ugandans aged 16 years plus have been enrolled for national IDs. Of those enrolled, 14,815,976 cards have been issued representing 90 per cent of the 16,589,586 cards printed so far. However, a total of 1,549,931 (nine per cent) cards have not been picked by their owners. It is therefore incorrect to say that most Ugandans did not get a chance to register.
Regarding the use of national ID data for verification processes, the benefits have already been well demonstrated to the country through earlier exercises such as the validation of civil servants done by the Ministry of Public Service supported by NIRA, which helped clean up the government payroll.
We also have in place a robust citizen verification process through which all applicants for national IDs must have their citizenship verified beginning with the local authorities who recommend the applicants and by a NIRA team that assesses citizenship documentation.

Where information on citizenship is considered inadequate, applicants are required to provide additional proof, while for those that are found to have provided inaccurate information on their citizenship there is provision for deregistration.
NIRA also wishes to inform all Ugandans who have never registered that continuous registration for national IDs is ongoing at NIRA offices located in all the districts in the country as at July 2015, and for those in Kampala, at the NIRA offices located in the five KCCA Division offices.

Gilbert Kadilo
Manager, Public Relations and Corporate Affairs National Identification and Registration Authority.