The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security, Lucia Witbooi, says 94,317 individuals have benefitted from the mass registration exercise underway as of 17 July 2024.
The services provided encompass birth registrations, issuance of birth certificate duplicates, new identity documents (ID) applications, ID duplicates, ID collection, and the registration and recording of stateless and undocumented persons.
She said the large-scale effort aims to ensure that all individuals have access to essential identification documents, crucial for various social and economic activities.
“This year, the Ministry is conducting Mass Registration Outreaches to all 121 Constituencies, which started on the 5th of February 2024 and is scheduled to end on 31 July 2024. These outreaches are aimed at providing national documents such as birth certificates, identity documents, and duplicate documents and to receive applications for citizenship for those who meet the requirement,” she said.
To boost timely birth and death registration, the Ministry entered into a collaboration agreement with the Ministry of Health and Social Services to introduce an e-birth and e-death notification system.
“There are currently 135 health facilities connected to the e-notification system through which vital events (births and deaths) occurring in Namibia are notified electronically to ensure timely registration,” said Witbooi.
She added that this innovation promotes interoperability of government systems and provides accuracy and credibility of the data captured on the National Population Registration System (NPRS).
Meanwhile, as of July 17, 2024, only 52,896 IDs out of the 93,019 IDs printed were collected, leaving 40,123 IDs uncollected.
“A table of the number of ID cards printed, collected and uncollected is available. While the Ministry is working on more effective strategies to distribute the IDs, including using the assistance of Constituency Councillors, members of the public are urged to collect their IDs at their respective regional offices,” she said.
