KIGALI - After two years of operating as a project, the National Identity Card Project (NID) is set to become a permanent institution by next year.

According to the Coordinator of the project, Pascal Nyamurinda, the move is aimed at establishing a sustainable way through which identity cards; electronic driving licenses, national smart cards and other documents will continue to be issued.

"We are prepared to become a permanent body and we are certain that within six months’ time we will have completed all the pending work on the national identity cards,” said Nyamurinda.

"So far two-thirds of the 40,000 individuals who had not acquired their identity cards due to various reasons have received them.

As the project comes to an end however, work must continue so a sustainable system which must take over is necessary,” he explained.

He cited new born babies, repatriated refugees and Rwandans in the Diaspora as cases of people who demand this nature of sustainability, the coordinator justified his point that registration will be done annually adding that there is also a big number of children who turn 16 each year.

"We will also introduce identification for the under 16 soon.”

In relation to preparedness, Nyamurinda affirms that technically there is enough sophisticated equipment and an effective system that captures bio-metric data which will enable work to continue smoothly.

Apparently, negotiations on how the national smart cards will function are underway. The smart card will integrate all the data from any service provider such as banks, insurance, and immigration among others.

"As we integrate the services, we will start with institutions that use electronic systems in their operations.

This move will enable all institutions involved to offer services quickly as it will be easy to identify citizens with reference to the national data base,” he was once told The New Times.

Registration and production of the electronic driving permits also continues.

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