The National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has condemned the sale of registration forms to bypass queues, warning the public to avoid dealing with middlemen.

Speaking at a joint security press briefing at Police Headquarters in Naguru on Monday, NIRA Registrar Clare Ollama urged citizens to obtain registration forms free of charge from designated stations or download them directly from the NIRA website.

“Dear countrymen, please do not be charged for a form because these forms for fresh registration are provided at stations,” Ollama said. She advised that where forms are unavailable at stations, applicants should visit nira.go.ug to download and print them.

“Rather than pay someone 10,000 shillings, make the choice to go to the portal, download the form, and print it. Let us beat the middleman at their own game by using freely available forms,” she said.

Ollama also dismissed claims of “fast-tracking” services, explaining that NIRA’s processes do not allow for such shortcuts because each stage; registration, processing, and issuance is handled by different personnel with no direct contact.

“The one registering has no access to the processor, the processor has no access to the one in production, and the one in production does not know who will issue. There is no such thing as fast-tracking,” she stated.

On concerns over delays, Ollama assured the public that national ID production is ongoing.