Over 1,600 register in National ID project
National Registration Bureau (NRB) says it has registered over 1,600 people in the first phase of National Identity System project which started mid last month.
The first phase, dubbed proof of concept as the bureau is using it to test procedure such as data capturing speed and flow plan of registration, targets prominent individuals including Members of Parliament, top government officials, chief executive officers of parastatals, top officials from the Judiciary and some media personnel.
NRB Public Relations Officer, Norman Fulatira, said in the phase, which will end mid August, the Bureau has also selected 27 sites in 11 districts where on each site, at least 200 Malawians will be registered.
The 11 districts in the pilot phase include Chitipa, Mzimba, Nkhata Bay, Lilongwe, Mchinji, Dowa, Salima, Blantyre, Chikwawa, Thyolo, and Mangochi.
“The second phase starts soon after the first and will end in December, 2016. It is expected that 95,000 Malawians will be registered in this phase. The target in the second phase is some civil servants and beneficiaries of social cash transfer schemes. The first and second phases are being supported financially by the Malawi Government.
“The third and last phase is the mass registration exercise targeting about nine million Malawians of 16 years of age and above. This is expected anytime in 2017. About $50 million will be used for the third phase.
“Meanwhile, the Government of Malawi and development partners are mobilising resources,” Fulatira said.
He said in the first phase, the Bureau has identified registration centres and at each centre there is a biometric registration kit and a team of five NRB officers who are assisting in filling of forms and data capture.
The Government of Malawi allocated K1.5 billion to NRB in the 2015/2016 National Budget for the procurement of equipment and implementation of the first phase.
In the 2016/2017 budget, the Government of Malawi has also allocated K800 million for the Bureau’s other recurrent transactions of which part will be used to implement phase two of the project.
Second phase is expected to be comp l e ted by December this year while mass registration in the third phase is expected to be completed by 2017.
Registration in nine sites of the Central Region was completed on Thursday while registration in 18 sites in Southern and Northern regions sites will be completed on August 14 2016.
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