Mass enrollment for upgraded national IDs pushed back to July

The National Identification and Registration Authority(NIRA) has announced  that the mass registration for national IDs all over the country  has been pushed to July.

NIRA Executive Director, Rosemary Kisembo told journalists on Wednesday that due to unforeseen circumstances, the start of the exercise had been pushed for one month to July.

“The mass enrollment and renewal exercise was set to start on June, 1, 2024 but due to unforeseen delays in the procurement process, the exercise didn’t take off. Nevertheless, by the end of July, 2024, the exercise will commence,” Kisembo said.

She explained that aware of the roadmap ahead of the 2026 general elections and expiry of the current national IDs beginning August, government is taking all necessary measures to ensure that the delays don’t affect service delivery and the roadmap.

Kisembo said the delay in kicking off the mass registration cant be attributed to any particular factor but said a number of them.

“As you are aware finances for this exercise were appropriate in December, 2023 but the procurement process in its nature is a mind step process and sometimes when it involves international bidders, it is even takes longer than usual.”

The mass enrollment for upgraded national IDs will take place in 10717 parishes in the country and it will be done for a period of 10 months.

Last month, the government announced that citizens will no longer have to pay to renew national identification cards, or to replace lost or damaged ones, the government has said - but it will be extremely costly to change one's particulars in "certain cases".

The government has been charging Shs50,000 for renewal of national ID or replacing lost or damaged ones.

It was also charging Shs40,000 for late registration, which fee has also been waived.

However, citizens wishing to change individual particulars on ID will have to part with Shs300,000, up from Shs50,000 previously.

"Change of particulars that has been increased to Shs300,000 because some people have frivolous reasons for altering their information," said Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the minister for ICT and national guidance.

Marriage or divorce cases that need changing particulars will not attract charges, the Cabinet decision adds.

The changes, Dr Baryomunsi said, will be effective on June 1 during the mass registration and renewal of national identification.