Over 9 Million Ugandans Registered in National ID Renewal Exercise

Kampala — At least 9.1 million Ugandans have registered for the renewal of their national identification cards in the ongoing mass renewal exercise, the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has reported.

Speaking on Monday, NIRA Registrar Claire Ollama highlighted significant progress made over the past two months. “We have registered 9.1 million Ugandans in two months.

Of these, eight million were renewing their IDs, 800,000 were first-time registrants, and the rest are individuals with National Identification Numbers applying for their first National IDs,” she said.

Ollama noted that the inclusion of children in the registration exercise has been positively received. “This means people are appreciating the value of unique identity for children. If you still have a child you haven’t registered, you are doing them a disservice. We urge parents to enroll their children,” she added.

Although over 100,000 National ID cards have been printed so far, they are yet to be issued.

Uganda’s first batch of national IDs, printed between 2014 and 2015, expired last year. The government recently extended the expiry period for one more year. By August this year, approximately 15.8 million national identity cards are expected to expire.

The renewal exercise also aims to introduce advanced security features to enhance easy identification.

NIRA Executive Director Rosemary Kisembo revealed that only 27.4 million Ugandans are currently registered out of the country’s estimated 45.9 million population, according to last year’s census.