The Minister of Home Affairs, Cain Mathema has said that the production of passports will improve before the end of this year following the delivery of modern equipment.
He also revealed that the process of decentralising the production and issuance of identity documents was almost complete. Mathema said:
Further steps have been taken to take delivery of passport paper and consumables as well as material for the production of synthetic identification cards to make sure that all those requiring our services get them in line with our client service charter.
While the impact of the measures taken so far are considerable in that about 100 000 people who applied for passports will take delivery of such documents by the end of December 2019, with the arrival of the additional material on order at the end of November 2019 or early December 2019, we expect to double the number of people getting passports within two months of taking delivery.
His remarks come when the office of the Registrar General has a backlog of over 300 000 dating back to 2018.
The travelling document is on high demand as scores of citizens are desperate to skip the country’s borders to escape the deteriorating state of affairs.
More: Nehanda Radio