General

ID cards for Dar es Salaam residents

05 Jun, 2012

Tanzania’s National Identification Authority (NIDA) is preparing to register residents in the greater Dar es Salaam area for national identification cards at the end of June.

The exercise, which is expected to cost $176 million, will be preceded by an awareness campaign. Local officials will then collect residents’ details by carrying out house-to-house enquiries where existing documents will be verified.

An identification card pilot project had been scheduled for April involving security forces and civil servants living in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, and residents of Kilombero and Morogoro regions, west of Dar es Salaam. However, after authorities faced challenges including forgeries, the project was postponed.

Information contained in the ID cards – which will include nationality and home address – will be kept in a central database. NIDA was established by the Tanzania government in July 2008.