There is going to be a mass registration and renewal exercise for national IDs this year.

The National Identification and Registration Authority(NIRA) has received a second batch of registration equipment ahead of the mass national ID renewal.

On Tuesday, NIRA received 1700 kits for the upcoming registration exercise to add onto the initial 1000 kits received last week.

They were received by officials led by NIRA Executive Director, Rosemary Kisembo.

The second batch brings the total number of kits to 2700, meant to facilitate national ID mass enrollment and renewal exercise.

Officials from NIRA said the kits are being shipped into the country in phases, with more expected to arrive in the coming days.

After receiving the first batch of kits, NIRA recently began training staff on how to use the equipment to ensure a smooth registration exercise.

Ugandans' first batch of national IDs were printed and issued between 2014 and 2015 and after 10 years, they expired last year in 2024 and this year 2025.

Government recently extended the expiry period for one year.

At least 15.8 million national identity cards are expected to expire by August this year.

The forthcoming mass registration exercise is meant to renew the national IDs but also add advanced security features for easy identification.

NIRA Executive Director, Rosemary Kisembo recently said only 27.4 million Ugandans are currently registered, of the 45.9 million according to last year's census.

She explained that in essence, the forthcoming exercise will be targeting between 17 and 18 million Ugandans who have never been registered.

"In essence, there is between 17 to 18 million new Ugandans to be registered. On a daily basis, we register one million new Ugandans and if we were to go with this pace, it would take us 17 years to register all of these people."

Kisembo explained that the mass enrollment will also cater for the 1.5 million Ugandans who are born every year according to statistics by UBOS.