THE National Identification Authority (NIDA) and Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA) has extended the deadline for outreach campaign aimed at moving the services closer to the public until January 20.
Long queues were witnessed at Mnazi Mmoja grounds in Dar es Salaam where the campaign is conducted to enable people to get National Identification Numbers (NIN) and birth certificates that will assist them to register their Sim cards.
The decision came eight days after President John Magufuli had extended the deadline of biometric registration of the cards by 20 days the original deadline having been December 31, 2019.
“We are extending the exercise to January 20 as you have witnessed long queues in the tents of both NIDA and RITA; that implies that people are now aware of particulars required for one to get registered f o r national identification,” NIDA Head of Communication Unit, Mr Thomas William, told ‘africa-press’.
Mr William further said the main challenge was not on documents to attach alongside NIDA applications but most applicants who have been registered cannot get NIN through short messages (SMS) as they do not remember some of their personal information particulars, including names used while registering and birthdates.
On merging their system with RITA to assist those who are yet to get their birth certificates, he said the exercise was not run in the office and this becomes a challenge to prove electronically if they are truly registered or not.
However, Mr William said that should not be a problem for those who wish to register but instead go to the Mnazi Mmoja grounds for the immigration department to question them to prove their citizenship .
RITA Public Relations Officer Jafari Malema told the ‘Daily News’ that the agency had also extended the date to the 20 days ahead from the set deadline.
“We have extended the deadline by 20 days as President Magufuli announced to give chances to citizens in urgent need of the birth document to have it for purposes of accessing National ID and the registration of sim cards,” he explained.
Mr Barnaba Peter, resident of Kimanga, said he was hoping to be registered with NIDA but realised that he did not have a birth certificate, thus shattering his dreams.
“The good thing is that RITA services are also provided here at Mnazi Mmoja; thus I quickly registered with them expecting to get my certificate earlier but things went sour after the officer told me that I should come back on 20th January to collect it,” he explained, adding: “I am in a dilemma as the deadline for sim card registration is on the same date as the one I am supposed to collect my certificate; I am praying that I will be able to meet the deadline, otherwise I have no idea whether the government will consider adding more days.”
David Kimaro, a resident of Kimara, said he was at Mnazi Mmoja grounds since last week but failed to register because he did not bring a birth certificate.
He said the situation on the ground was tough as after registering with RITA he was asked to return on 20 January to collect his certificate and getting NIN might take another three weeks.
“I am not sure if I will be able to register my sim card; this will be a big loss for me as I get all my payments through my mobile phone,” he added.
According to Mr Malema, RITA embarked on a campaign of registering and issuing birth certificates to Tanzanians above 18 years, camping at Mnazi Mmoja and other regions in the country in November this year and the exercise was to end on 31, December, 2019.
The agency had a target of registering and issuing birth certificates to 10,000 Tanzanians but they had registered and issued birth documents to 15,287 Tanzanians by December 30, 2019.
