Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE National Identification Authority (NIDA) has registered and issued a total of 8,397,524 national identification cards to eligible citizens.
Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Khamis Hamza Chilo said the government is determined to ensure all eligible citizens are provided with the national IDs by December 2021.
He was responding to a question from Special Seats legislator, Saada Hussein (CCM), who demanded to know the government strategies to ensure all registered Tanzanians are provided with the national identification cards.
“NIDA continues to produce the national identification cards; plans are to make sure that all eligible citizens are registered and given the cards by end of this year,” said the deputy minister.
He assured Tanzanians that all those registered and given national identification numbers (NIN) will be provided with the cards.
He however, said there are a number of Tanzanians who have not collected their national ID cards.
“We have been making announcements through local government authorities, district and regional offices but yet some ID cards are not collected,” he noted.
The deputy minister admitted to being aware of the shortage of workers at its NIDA offices across the country, saying the government is working to employ more young Tanzanians for the job.
A single machine has a capacity to produce 4,500 IDs within an hour and at least 12,000 cards per day.
Late last year, Minister for Home Affairs, George Simbachawene said the government plans to buy sophisticated machines from Germany to help improve the production of IDs.
He said: “It is unfortunate that the technicians from German have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic…I am confident that immediately after installation of the new machines we will be able to fast track the process and every individual will receive the ID.”
