Minister of Homeland Security Jean Sendeza has said the Ministry of Homeland Security will this year conduct mass child registration through the Nation Registration Bureau (NRB).

The minister disclosed this on Tuesday 27 September in Lilongwe during consultation meeting.

“Government want to ensure that all children below 16 years old are registered just as the ones 16 and above. The mass of child registration will cover 8.4 million children,” said Sendeza.

The first phase of the exercise will be done in Mwanza district, Lilongwe Rural East and Karonga district.

The exercise will be done in six phases and is expected to be completed in 2023.

“It is important to register all the citizens of Malawi, the registration will help every child to be a citizen and when a country has got its citizens registered it can easily budget and plan for the services to lender to its citizens. As Ministry of Homeland Security, we have to look into the issue of registration of all the citizens of Malawi through the NRB,” explained Sendeza.

Sendeza calls on development partners and other stakeholders to help with funding for the exercise in the second phase since the first phase is being funded by Government and development partners like UNDP and UNICEF.

According to Sendeza, the NRB has contributed 8 Million US dollars towards this project.

Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Homeland Security, Mphatso Augustine Sambo said, as the Ministry of Homeland Security they are carrying out the mass registration to make sure that every Malawian is registered.