18 million Ugandans are still not registered with the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), despite a population of over 45 million, according to the NIRA's Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, Kasumba Stephen Robert, as quoted by the media.
"As of now, in our register, we have registered over 27 million people fully. But the Uganda Bureau of Statistics is saying we have over 45 million Ugandans. When we subtract, we realize that the balance was not registered," he said.
To compensate, the official said NIRA will cover every village, island and hard-to-reach areas to register births, deaths and marriages.
NIRA said it is working closely with 84 ministries, departments and agencies to collect data for the registry, including a data-sharing partnership with the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.
Talibita Moses, legal compliance officer at the Uganda National Health Consumers Organization, warned that under local law, failure to register births or deaths within the required time frame may result in penalties, including imprisonment.
In June, Uganda will begin registering updated national ID cards based on the NIRA database. NIRA will add iris scanning as an additional biometric feature to the new ID card.
The new cards will also have a security feature that can be detected in ultraviolet light, in addition to the UV-B bifluorescent red, to make it more difficult to copy the card and allow people to verify the authenticity of the card with ultraviolet light.