Uganda migrates more than 28M records to new national ID system

The Registrar of Uganda’s National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) Claire Ollama, says the country has fully transitioned to its new national digital ID system with the migration of more than 28 million identity records from the legacy system.

Ollama disclosed the information on February 9 during a press conference in which she gave a balance sheet of the country’s mass ID registration and renewal exercise which started in May last year, and targeted over 33 million people.

UAE-based IT company Tahaluf is the service provider for the new national ID system. Five modules are based on MOSIP, including ID registration, renewals, updating and correction, issuance and lost ID replacement services.

Uganda’s technology providers also include Tech5, technoforte, Entrust and Hyf, NIRA ED RoseMary Kisembo said during MOSIP Connect 2026 on Wednesday.

Addressing journalists at the Police Headquarters in Kampala, as reported by New Vision, the NIRA official said the ID records migration, as well as new registrations and updates, now takes the total number of ID enrollments in Uganda’s population database to more than 35 million.

“With the migrated data from the old system and the new people registered, the new national register has over 35 million Ugandans who can be uniquely identified via biometrics,” Ollama is quoted as saying.

She explained that for ID renewals, 14.3 million renewals were done of the target of 15.8 million, which gives a success rate of 90.5 percent, while only 6.4 million first-time enrollments were recorded from a target of 17.2 million, representing a 37.3 percent success rate.

Although the first phase of the mass registration and renewal drive has officially come to an end at the level of parishes, Ollama stated that the process will continue as a routine activity across NIRA offices in the country. She said the ID authority is bent on ensuring that every eligible Ugandan citizen “finds their way onto the [population] register.”

Speaking further, Ollama mentioned the availability of national ID cards which have already been printed and pending collection by their owners. She disclosed that of the 10.1 million cards which have been printed so far, only 2.5 million have been picked up, which means that over 60 percent of cards are still lying idle in drawers.

Ollama encouraged citizens to go for their printed cards, while emphasising its importance in facilitating daily transactions for them.

Meanwhile, the State Minister for Internal Affairs, Gen. David Muhoozi, has assured citizens that efforts are being made to ensure that the ID registration and renewal process continues hitch-free, Nile Post reports.

While addressing concerns related to the process, including system integration and scanning failures of QR codes on some of the new national ID cards, Muhoozi said measures have been taken to resolve these problems, while others will be resolved “as they arise.”

The minister said by the end of March, the module that facilitates the ID authentication process would be fully operational.

He also addressed concerns related to bribery and extortion, and called on citizens to report any NIRA official or any other actor suspected of acts of corruption in relation to the ID issuance process.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  identity management  |  MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform)  |  national ID  |  National Identification and Registration Authority of Uganda (NIRA)  |  Tahaluf  |  Uganda