The National Identification Agency (NIDA) has announced that, effective February 1, all citizens will be required to apply for ID replacement via the Irembo platform.

Launched in July 2015, Irembo is a one-stop portal for Rwanda’s e-Government services.

National ID related services have been up on Irembo for about a year now.

However, Josephine Mukesha, the director-general of NIDA, told The New Times yesterday that their announcement came after the agency established that there was lack of coordination in how their services were being offered, which was "confusing and inconveniencing” for citizens.

"What we are doing now is to officially call off any other procedures and say that for any citizen to replace their Identity card, declare and make payment, they will have to do so through the Irembo platform,” Mukesha said.

After submission of all the requirements online, Mukesha said, applicants will be notified of the day they can collect their new Identity card from their respective local administrative offices.

She also said the agency is currently working with the National Post Office to deliver IDs to various parts of the country where holders hail from, thus eliminating the inconveniences that come with traveling to Kigali to collect Identification cards. 

"New IDs applied for through Irembo will be sent to respective sector offices every month,” NIDA said in their statement.

Application for replacement of stolen, lost or spoilt National ID costs Rwf1500 while first-time applicants pay Rwf500 to get an ID.

Latest figures from Irembo indicate that the portal offers e-Government 83 services and maintains over 2500 agents countrywide and nine digital payment channels/platforms, including mobile money services across all local telecoms, Mobicash, all Bank of Kigali branches, as well as Visa card and MasterCard, among others.

Irembo receives about 8000 applicants every day and it says it has worked on over two million transactions since July 2015.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw