By JAMES KUNDA –

MORE than 400,000 people have obtained green National Registration Cards (NRCs)under phase two of  the ongoing mobile issuance exercise in four provinces.
Home Affairs Minister Davies Mwila said the exercise which is covering Lusaka, Southern, Western and Eastern provinces, has seen 404,808 people out of the targeted 500,000 obtain new NRCs.
Mr Mwila said this yesterday when he presented a ministerial statement to Parliament on the countrywide mobile issuance of NRCs.
Phase one of the exercise was completed in July and covered Central, Muchinga and Northern provinces while phase two was launched last month and will end after a period of 90 days.
“As at October 20, 2015, 156,867 people in Lusaka had been issued with NRC’s against a target of 200,000 while the Southern Province registered 86,032 against a target of 80, 000,” he said.
Mr Mwila said Western Province had recorded 53,937 new NRC holders against a target of 100,000, while in Eastern, 107,972 people out of 120,000 had obtained the cards.
He said the Treasury had approved a supplementary budget of K136 million, in addition to a similar fund of K25 million, bringing the total cost of the exercise to more than K157 million.
“A total of K47 million was released in phase one while K22 million has so far been released for phase two,” Mr Mwila said.
Mr Mwila announced that his Ministry would this week launch phase three of the exercise to cover Copperbelt, North-Western and Luapula provinces.
He said the Treasury had released K30 million for the exercise which would officially commence on November 1, this year and last for 90 days.
“My Ministry has projected to register 430,000 people in the three provinces with Copperbelt expected to record 230,000, North-Western 90,000 and Luapula 110, 000,” he said.
Mr Mwila urged stakeholders to avail the department of national registration with the necessary support to make the exercise successful.
The House also heard that the Bank of Zambia had as of last month mopped up K3.7 billion of the old currency from circulation following the rebasing of the Kwacha in 2013.
Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda said this represented a withdraw rate of 97.3 per cent while the cash exercise exchange exercise would conclude in December this year.
Mr Chikwanda was responding to UPND Gwembe Member of Parliament (MP) Brian Ntundu who wanted to know how much money was exchanged during the transition from the old to the new currency.