Over 5.4 million national identity cards are yet to be collected following a major service-delivery bottleneck faced by the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), Parliament has learnt.
Rosemary Kisembo, the NIRA Executive Director, attributed the backlog largely to inadequate staffing following the expiry of a temporary mass-enrolment and renewal programme.
NIRA is now asking Government to increase its approved establishment from 571 to 998 positions, while providing at least 2,700 temporary workers for 18 months.
“The authority's existing workforce is insufficient for the scale of its statutory responsibilities,” she stated while appearing before Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises – COSASE on Monday, 07 September 2026.
“NIRA currently has an approved establishment of 571 positions, of which only 418 are filled, including just 201 staff directly facing clients,” she told the committee.
The temporary workforce had been deployed during the mass enrolment and renewal exercise that began on May 27, 2025. The authority initially operated with about 9,800 temporary workers, although the number fluctuated between roughly 9,800 and 12,000 because of high attrition.
Kisembo told MPs that, even with temporary workers available, the authority estimates it would require approximately nine months simply to distribute the outstanding cards, assuming personnel were devoted exclusively to card issuance.
The proposed temporary workforce would be deployed to complete the renewal of approximately six million people, register about 10.9 million people who are not yet on the national register, process changes of particulars and support birth and death registration.
But that arrangement, she acknowledged, offers only temporary relief. “At the end of three months, we shall go back to the point of 418 staff, of which 201 are client-facing.”
Under the Registration of Persons Act, 2015, as amended in 2024, NIRA is responsible for maintaining the National Identification Register and registering citizens, lawful non-citizens, births and deaths.
The 2024 amendments further transferred civil-registration functions, including marriage registration, to NIRA as part of the Government's rationalisation of public agencies.
According to Kisembo's testimony, NIRA has printed approximately 15.4 million new identity cards, but only about 10 million have been issued, leaving roughly 5.4 million cards within the authority's custody. “The workload vis-à-vis the staffing structure does not match,” she said.
Hon. George Musisi, COSASE Deputy Chairperson and MP for Kira Municipality, said complaints from citizens suggested that motivation, efficiency and internal service standards were also contributing to delays.
Musisi recounted his own experience at a NIRA office, saying he arrived early but still encountered difficulties obtaining service. “It is not just about the numbers of the staff…..just picking a card, not registration, picking a card is problematic.”
Hon. Muwada Nkunyingi, the committee chairperson queried cases in which citizens with newly issued national IDs were allegedly being told that their identification details were not yet activated or linked to the relevant systems.
Hon. Geofrey Wokuri, MP for Bungokho County South, told the committee that young people seeking driving permits could lose money because training-related payments may expire while they wait for identity information to become operational.
NIRA acknowledged that the driving-permit system is still being connected to the new identification system but said it has introduced an interim workaround.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.
