By CHILA NAMAIKO –

.NRC

THE issuance of biometric National Registration Cards (NRCs) is gaining momentum as Government is set to start issuing the digitalized cards with a pilot production earmarked for Lusaka province in the first-quarter of next year.
The biometric NRCs would be embedded with a security chip containing data of the holder and its features would make it difficult for the identity card to be forged as is the case with the current cards.
Passports, Citizenship and National Registration Registrar General Mathews Nyirongo said Government had already purchased state of the-art equipment from a Germany-based company at a cost of K10 million for processing of the cards.
Mr Nyirongo said in an interview yesterday that the pilot production would start with Lusaka province in the first quarter of 2018 with 500,000 digital cards before the whole exercise was rolled out to other parts of the country.
“There is huge progress being achieved regarding the expected issuance of digital NRCs and in the first quarter of next year, we want to start this pilot production in Lusaka province,” he said.
Once the pilot production was successfully implemented in Lusaka, Mr Nyirongo said the whole project would be rolled out to the rest of the provinces.
The digital NRCs would be more secured as they would be used in many transactions including financial transactions.
Mr Nyirongo said the department would pilot the production of 500,000 NRCs and that members of the public would be sensitised on the need to submit their old ones.
He advised members of the public to continue holding on to their particulars when time for issuance of digital NRCs would come into effect.