Residents of Fort Portal City and the greater Kabarole District have been urged to collect their unclaimed National Identity Cards from the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) offices in Booma.
According to Junior Akampurira, the NIRA Registrar for Fort Portal and Kabarole, more than 50,000 national IDs are yet to be picked up from the authority’s Booma headquarters.
He emphasized that the uncollected cards are creating congestion at the office and delaying service delivery.
“All services, including ID renewals, registration of children and adults, and collection of processed cards, have been centralized at our main office in Booma to improve coordination and efficiency,” Akampurira explained.
His remarks come amid concerns from residents who have called for ID services to be returned to sub-county levels, citing long distances and high transport costs to access the Booma office. However, Akampurira clarified that decentralizing services requires government approval, additional funding, and logistical arrangements, which are still pending.
He also advised residents who applied for renewals and detected errors in their personal details to visit the office for guidance and correction before collecting their cards.
On the registration process, Akampurira explained that children aged 0 to 17 years are registered and issued a National Identification Number (NIN), along with a birth certificate and a NIN slip containing their biodata. Individuals become eligible to receive a National ID card upon turning 18.
He further noted that although the new generation national ID cards have already been processed, they are not yet operational. Ugandans will continue using the current IDs until the new cards officially become functional on March 31, 2026.
NIRA has now appealed to all residents of Fort Portal and Kabarole to take personal responsibility and collect their IDs in order to ease congestion at the offices and ensure uninterrupted access to essential services that require proper identification.