By George Bukenya
Massive turn for National ID’s renewal has overwhelmed the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), were 9.1 million Ugandans have been registered in a period of two months since commencement of the exercise.
Speaking to reporters at Naguru Police Headquarters during a weekly police conference, NIRA’s registrar Claire Ollama said that the o with majority turned up for which total to 8 million while first timers are just 800,000 and the rest those who want to change their particulars.
“ The public should make if there some people bribing our officers to bit the queue, other pay for fist trucking their forms. I want to assure those who paid our officers to help truck their ID’s that it’s not possible because processing passes through several hands which are isolate,’’ Ollama said.
“ I caution the public to just be patient enough they will get their National ID’s because we are using the same machines to produce, we first want to get as many registered people as possible such that issuance becomes easy for us. Production takes a maximum of five minutes while registration take twenty minutes so it wouldn’t be prudent for one to stay in the queue waiting for issuance.’’
Ollama advised the public to download the forms from NIRA website: https:www.nira.go.ug just in case they find when forms are over, she said it only cost USH 500 then they can fill and bring them to where there are machines this even simplifies the work while others can pre-register online.
She also appealed to parents to register their children immediately, highlighting the lifelong benefits of identification. “If you still have a child in your household who is not registered, you are doing them a disservice,” she said.
“As parents, there are many gifts we can give, but few are like a national ID. It is a gift that keeps on giving from birth, when it helps with obtaining a birth certificate, through school trips, university enrollment, and even for legal matters later in life.”
She urged parents to use this holiday to register their child because NIRA will dedicate all equipment to this cause and they will be staged at the respective district Boma grounds during this period.
“A national ID stays with a person from the time they are born until they sign out of this world. We pray that during this holiday season, you will make the choice to enroll your child and secure their future,” she added.
She also said that registration of Ugandans in Diaspora has commenced with those in Doha (Qatar) on 4th August and in Australia from 11th to 19th while in Saudi Arabia it will start on 25th August to 3rd September, 2025 and will always be starting at 8:00 and end at 5:00 each day.