The National Identification and Registration Authority(NIRA) has received a new batch of high-tech equipment that will be used in printing of new national identity cards.
Each of the four state-of-the-art card printing machines, has the capacity to produce up to 3,000 national IDs per hour, NIRA said.
"This latest shipment aligns with NIRA’s ongoing preparations for the upcoming National ID mass enrollment and mass renewal exercise to be rolled out at parish level."
According to NIRA, the new machines are expected to boost efficiency and significantly reduce the turnaround time for national ID processing, noting that the shipment aligns with ongoing preparations for the upcoming National ID mass enrollment and mass renewal exercise to be rolled out at parish level.
Previously, NIRA received over 5,000 registration kits that they say have been instrumental in the technical training of all client-facing staff, and recently Registration Assistants and Registration Officers.
Given the apparent technological advancements, NIRA is poised to streamline the national ID registration and issuance process, reinforcing its dedication to providing timely and reliable identification services to all Ugandans. It is no longer doubtful that the embers of interminability have been diminished by the vivid progress towards the launch of the exercise,” NIRA said.
Ugandans’ first batch of national IDs were printed and issued between 2014 and 2015 and after 10 years, they expired last year in 2024 and this year 2025.
Government recently extended the expiry period for one year.
At least 15.8 million national identity cards are expected to expire by August this year.
The forthcoming mass registration exercise is meant to renew the national IDs but also add advanced security features for easy identification.
NIRA Executive Director, Rosemary Kisembo recently said only 27.4 million Ugandans are currently registered, of the 45.9 million according to last year’s census.
She explained that in essence, the forthcoming exercise will be targeting between 17 and 18 million Ugandans who have never been registered.
“In essence, there is between 17 to 18 million new Ugandans to be registered. On a daily basis, we register one million new Ugandans and if we were to go with this pace, it would take us 17 years to register all of these people.”
Kisembo explained that the mass enrollment will also cater for the 1.5 million Ugandans who are born every year according to statistics by UBOS.