AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE government is planning to produce 18 million national identification cards within four months after procuring modern machines for the nationwide compulsory exercise.
Minister for Home Affairs, George Simbachawene told Parliament yesterday that a single machine has a capacity to produce 4,500 IDs within an hour and at least 12,000 cards per day.
“We understand there were challenges at the National Identification Authority (NIDA), we are striving to address these challenges,” he said.
According to the minister, NIDA’s old machines are now undergoing maintenance by a team of local Information and Technology (IT), profes- sionals to be upgraded and reused in future operations.
Mr Simbachawene stated that NIDA grounded most of its equipment, further affecting the nationwide registration and identification exercise mostly crucial in mobile SIM card registration.
“We have so far purged all officials who had hand inthe dubious project,” he told parliamentarians who had demanded the man- agement of the authority fired for incompetence and negligence.
Initially, NIDA had planned to issue national IDs to 24 million people, but only six million have been given the crucial document.
The minister said the government, however, resolved to buy sophisticated machines from Germany to help improve the production of IDs.
“It is unfortunate that the technicians from Ger- man 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,” he said.
The minister also noted that NIDA had received approval from the finance and planning ministry over changing the data it has generated countrywide.
Mr Simbachawene said the authority was work- ing with the office of the Attorney General (AG), under which 63 firms will sign an agreement to use NIDA data.
“So far seven contracts have been signed as of February 20 and 14 others have been submitted to stakeholders for opin- ions,” he noted.
Members of Parliament expressed concern yesterday following delays by NIDA to complete the exercise on time.
Tunduma MP Frank Mwakajoka (Chadema) said NIDA had caused an uproar in the country for introducing a bogus system, calling on the government to hold the management accountable.
His statement was immediately echoed by Nachingwea MP Hassan Masawa who claimed that many Tanzanians had been excluded in the exercise with their mobile phones being shut down indefinitely .
“The more worrying problem is that NIDA has closed its regional offices while people need their services,” he lamented.
Another MP, Ambassa- dor Adadi Rajabu (CCM), recounted the report of the CAG presented by PAC in Parliament that NIDA had been working with other institutions without a formal agreement.
