The National Registration Bureau (NRB) has said that the National Identity Cards (IDs) which are being printed now will still bear an expiry date which will not be effective.

Principal Secretary for NRB Mark Sambo made the announcement at a press briefing in Lilongwe today to announce commencement of the second phase of the Outreach ID and Death registration campaign.

Said Sambo, “Following the Minister’s pronouncements in Parliament, we have suspended expiry dates for the National IDs. However, people will notice that the new IDs will still bear expiry dates, this is because at the moment, the measure is temporary.”

He also announced the removal of fee which was being charged on replacement of lost IDs and that renewal of the IDs will be treated as optional as such all service providers should recognise National IDs even if they show expiry up to 1January 2026.

Sambo said during the first phase of the campaign which took place in 4 districts of Chitipa, Dowa, Balaka and Mulanje, 75, 000 new registrants were recorded out of the 232 472 targeted.

He further said out of 474 947 targeted replacements, only 26, 576 IDs were replaced and only 332 deaths which occurred from 2017 were recorded.

He further said NRB has taken steps to improve service delivery through technology advancement such as using biometric verification and Digital ID using mobile wallet.

Source:NRB