After months of delays, the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has officially launched Uganda’s mass enrollment and identity card renewal exercise.
The initial phase targets top officials from NIRA and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, while the general public will follow later.
Uganda’s first national ID cards were issued between 2014 and 2015, with some expiring as early as August 2024. NIRA now plans to renew 15.8 million cards set to expire by August 2025 and register 17.2 million new applicants—bringing the total number of IDs to 33 million.
State Minister for Internal Affairs, Gen David Muhoozi, who presided over the launch, revealed that the National Identification Register currently holds records for 27.7 million Ugandans.
He noted that Cabinet had approved the renewal initiative in August 2022, acknowledging that several cards had already expired. To avoid disruption of services tied to the ID system, the government previously extended their validity via statutory instrument.
To support the exercise, the government procured 5,665 biometric registration kits from Tahaluf Al Emarat Technical Solutions—delivered in January and distributed nationwide by February 25.
Additionally, two high-capacity card production machines, capable of printing 100,000 laser-engraved cards per day, were received in March.
The system upgrade also includes new data centre infrastructure—five racks, eight servers, firewalls, and other critical communication tools.
The national security information system is now built on the Modular Open Source Identification Platform (MOSIP), allowing for online registration and enhanced biometric data capture, including iris scans.
Biometric enrollment will only be conducted at designated sites by trained NIRA officers.
The pilot phase of the exercise began on May 2 and runs until May 26, covering key stakeholders and institutions like the Ministry of Internal Affairs and NIRA itself. Full-scale registration will commence on May 27 at the parish level across all 146 administrative districts.
According to Gen Muhoozi, the exercise targets Ugandans aged 16 and above. New applicants will receive a National Identification Number (NIN), and successful applicants will get their cards within four weeks, a timeline expected to shrink to two weeks as the process stabilizes.
While registration and renewals will be free for first-time applicants and expired IDs, those requesting changes to personal details or replacements for lost cards will be required to pay a fee.
