Uganda has joined the global community in commemorating International Identity Day, marked annually on September 16th. This year’s celebration comes as Uganda continues its Mass Enrollment and Renewal Exercise, which began on May 27, 2025. The exercise seeks to renew 15.2 million national ID cards and register at least 17.8 million citizens, underscoring efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goal 16.9.

In an effort to scale up identification registrations, district offices across the country pitched camp at regional referral hospitals and high-volume health facilities to conduct instant birth as well as NIN registrations as one of the ways of commemorating International ID Day.

The Authority further held a media breakfast with members of the Uganda Parliamentary Press Association as one of the ways of amplifying messages on identification and civil registrations. The breakfast meeting provided an avenue for members of the press to get a deeper understanding of NIRA’s services and procedures, albeit challenges.

The agency intended to use the avenue to receive feedback from the media to support its bid in improving sensitization and creating mass awareness across the country.

During the meeting, the Acting Executive Director, Mr. Katinti Christopher, urged journalists to be ambassadors of identification awareness. This appeal emphasizes the crucial role that legal identification plays in accessing essential services, participating in nation-building, and exercising one’s rights as a citizen.

Following the briefing, the NIRA team, led by the Acting Executive Director, gave the media a guided tour of national identification processcard production process. The tour showcased the authority’s commitment to ensuring efficient service delivery, including segmented services for vulnerable groups such as the elderly, persons with disabilities, expectant mothers, and breastfeeding mothers.

By duplicating this model across all branches, NIRA’s efforts aim to provide legal identity for all Ugandans, aligning with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.9, which seeks to achieve legal identity, including birth registrations for all, by 2030. The authority has made significant progress, with a total number of 10.5 million renewals and 2.5 million fresh registrations recorded so far.

The exercise is ongoing in various parts of the country at parish level and abroad, targeting Ugandans in the diaspora.

NIRA encourages parents to register their children, emphasizing that it is simpler, free, and less stressful to do so before it’s urgently needed.