The National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has said at least one million Ugandans have their national identity cards renewed in the ongoing mass exercise.
“By Monday last week, we were at 2.5 million that had registered since the start of the exercise but by today, we are at 3.5 million renewals. This means one million renewals have been registered in one week,” Claire Ollama, a registrar at NIRA told journalists on Monday.
The ongoing mass exercise covers both renewals for expired or soon-to-expire national ID cards and first-time registration for all Ugandans, including children.
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.
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.
Updating the country on the ongoing exercise, Ollama said the public has welcomed the registration and renewal exercise, noting that this shows the faith they have in having their national IDs renewed to enable them access several services in the country.
She also urged parents to take children for registration, not necessarily for national IDs but also to get national identification numbers since national IDs are issued to persons aged 16 and above.