The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ally Gugu, has urged employees of the National Identification Authority (NIDA) to perform their duties in compliance with established rules, procedures, and laws governing citizen registration and identification.
He made the remarks on January 3, 2025, while officially opening a NIDA Workers’ Council meeting held at the Julius Nyerere Leadership School Hall in Kibaha, Coast Region.
“I would like to commend you for your good performance, but I urge you to continue adhering to the established registration rules, procedures, and laws, as NIDA is a very important institution in the country’s development,” said Gugu.
He emphasized that NIDA carries out critical responsibilities that serve the broader national interest. Therefore, employees are required to demonstrate patriotism and integrity in safeguarding and properly managing citizens’ personal information entrusted to them.
He also called upon citizens who have not yet collected their national identification cards to visit NIDA district offices to collect them, noting that the ID cards are essential identification documents and that the government has incurred significant costs in producing them.
Additionally, Gugu commended NIDA for introducing a Short Code service that enables citizens to receive feedback on ID services through mobile phones at no cost.
He said the service will particularly benefit rural residents by allowing them to access information about their registration status and personal details while remaining in their local areas, without the need to travel long distances to district offices.
On his part, the Director General of NIDA, James Kaji, revealed that more than 300,000 national ID cards have not yet been collected from NIDA district offices.
“I would like to take this opportunity to urge citizens to collect their ID cards from our district offices, as the government has spent a large amount of money to produce them,” said Kaji.
He further advised citizens whose personal details contain errors to take advantage of the special one-year correction permit to amend their information, noting that once the permit expires, no extension will be granted.