National Registration Bureau (NRB) on Tuesday, 27th September held a stakeholders consultation meeting in Lilongwe where various individuals shared views on areas of focus ahead of the exercise.
During the meeting, other stakeholders wondered why Government intends to introduce the program at a time registration for adults is not complete.
Reacting to the concerns, Principal Secretary in the Homeland Security ministry responsible for the National Registration Buruea, Mphatso Sambo pointed out that the registration is a continuation of the ongoing registration program to have every Malawian registered.
“There is a group of people especially those who are turning 16 now, we have about 8.4 million people who are supposed to be registered and this is a continuing of the registration process to have everyone registered” he indicated.
During the engagement, Malawi Electoral Commission’s Chairperson, Dr. Chifundo Kachale and Malawi Human Rights Commission termed the mass registration, a step in the right direction.
Kachale said the registration will go a long way towards strengthening accuracy of the electoral database which is key to democracy.
To Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) the Mass Child Registration resonates with ratified laws to protect children from abuse.
Apart from this, Homeland Security Minister, Jean Sendeza highlighted that through the registration database, various institutions will easily track details of every Malawian in the process digitalizing government operations.
She said “When a country has each and every citizen registered, it is easy to budget and plan for services that are to be rendered by the Government.
“It is important to register all the citizens in Malawi despite concerns that we are not doing much but we have been assured that anytime soon we will get machines that will print the IDs as quick as possible.”
Malawi Government together with other partners will fund the first phase of the project to roll out in October in three selected districts of Lilongwe rural East, Karonga and Mwanza.
