Nira explains why some citizens lack IDs
What you need to know:
According to current registration statistics, we have received 29,343,615 million applications to date. Of this, 25,003,119 million citizens have been allocated NINs
I refer to the story titled, ‘17m Ugandans have no national IDs – govt’ in the Daily Monitor March 5. The story says “at least 16.8 million Ugandans aged 16 and above registered with the National Identification and Registration Authority (Nira), but have not accessed their national IDs.”
We wish to state that this is not an accurate representation of the status of registrations and issuance of IDs and, therefore, wish to clarify.
While it is a requirement that all citizens should be registered and incorporated into the National Identification Register, the Registration of Persons’ Act (ROPA) 2015 under Section 69 and Regulation 21 of the Registration of Persons Regulations SI 67/2015 stipulates that only persons aged 16 years and above are expected to carry national IDs.
Minors below 16 years shall, however, be registered and assigned National Identification Numbers (NINs). These can then initiate a request for an ID card once they turn 16 years.
According to current registration statistics, we have received 29,343,615 million applications to date. Of this, 25,003,119 million citizens have been allocated NINs. Of the 25 million persons identified, 18,320,416 citizens with NINs are persons aged 16 years and above and, therefore, mandated to hold national IDs, while 6,704,186 million are children below 16 years.
As at Tuesday, March 3, Nira had printed a total of 18,326,547 national ID cards out of which 17,792,416 cards are first time productions while 534,131 cards are second time national ID productions for cases including replacement of lost, defaced and damaged IDs, change of particulars and rectification of information on the national IDs. A total 15,227,171 of the 18.3 million national IDs printed have so far been issued to their owners. It is prudent to clarify that not all applications received are automatically cleared for national IDs as some may be queried for various reasons, including double applications, incomplete information and questions regarding citizenship verification among others.
It is important to also point out that Section 54 of the ROPA makes registration for national IDs compulsory. It is, therefore, the primary responsibility of individuals to seek to register and to pick their national IDs from the respective Nira district and division offices when the cards are ready.
Gilbert Kadilo,
Nira manager PR
and corporate affairs
