NIRA ends subcounty services, stuck with 5 million uncollected cards

The National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has officially ended its parish-level registration and enrolment services, returning all operations to district offices across the country, amid revelations that more than five million national identity cards remain uncollected.

The announcement was made on Monday by the Registrar of NIRA, Ms Claire Ollama, following the closure of a nationwide exercise that began in May 2025 and was extended to early February 2026.

The parish-level enrolment exercise, which started on 27 May 2025, was initially scheduled to run for six months but was later extended to 8 February 2026 to allow more Ugandans to access services closer to their communities.

“The enrolment of persons and access from NIRA at parish level closed yesterday, February 8th 2026,” Ollama said, 

She explained that the exercise targeted the enrolment of 17.2 million Ugandans, including the renewal of expired national identity cards and the issuance of new cards to children who had National Identification Numbers (NINs) and had reached the eligible age. 

However, only 37.3% of the targeted children were enrolled, a shortfall she attributed to reliance on parents and caretakers, which slowed the process.

With the parish-level operations now concluded, NIRA services have reverted to district offices countrywide, where the authority operated before the decentralised rollout. 

Special arrangements, however, are in place for the heavily populated districts of Kampala and Wakiso

In Kampala, NIRA offices are located in Rubaga near the Catholic Cathedral, on Lumumba Avenue near the Ministry of Public Service in Kampala Central, in Lukuli in Makindye Division, and at the new Riham Factory in Kawempe. 

In Wakiso, services are available at Naluvule Station near Oil Libya, Kasangati in Masoli, and at Namugongo Martyrs Shrine.

Ms Ollama revealed that NIRA had successfully migrated 28,571,893 records into the new system. 

Of the more than 14 million applicants who qualified for cards, 10,152,559 were printed. 

By the close of the exercise, 7,261,435 cards had been dispatched to districts, but only 2,581,457 cards — about 35 per cent — had been issued to their owners.

“That means we have over five million cards that are due for collection across the country,” she said.

She urged applicants to visit their respective district offices to collect their national identity cards, warning that failure to do so could disrupt access to essential services that require valid identification.