School children register for national IDs. File photo.
KAMPALA–The National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has extended the registration of school-going children for another two months.
In a statement seen by PML Daily, the registration was extended because not all the regions kicked off the exercise at the same time.
NIRA also cited logistical problems. This year, NIRA in collaboration with the Ministry of Education decided to conduct a registration exercise for all school going children in all primary, secondary and post primary institutions in the country.
NIRA officials told PML Daily that they are targeting to register over 10 million children, revealing that they have so far scored over 80 percent.
“The exercise is moving slowly because some parents and guardians are not cooperative while some of them lack identity cards,” an official explained.
But also the school administrations are demanding money from NIRA for the services they are rending.
NIRA was established by the Act of Parliament, the Registration of Persons Act 2015 with the mandate and principle responsibility of establishing and maintaining the National Identification Register of Uganda.
Not paid
NIRA recruited some enrollment officers to help in registration exercise. However, in some districts they spent months without receiving their allowances, as it was agreed in their contracts.
NIRA was under pressure for months to clear over 100 enrollment officers. The angry enrollment officers were mainly from Omoro, Nwoya and Gulu districts.
They were seen storming NIRA, Gulu zonal office demanding for their payments.
