By Paul Madise

Lilongwe, April 6, Mana: Minister of Homeland Security, Ken Zikhale Ng'oma, has described the commissioning of the National Identity High Performance Printer as a milestone in improving National Registration Bureau (NRB) service delivery.

He was speaking in Lilongwe on Friday during the commissioning of the National ID High Performance Printer.

The Minister expressed concern that NRB was in low capacity to meet the growing demand of producing and printing national IDs hence the commissioning of the new printer will reduce waiting time and respond positively to the negative sentiments towards the Bureau.

"The commissioning of the printer is not only a game changer but also will save government resources to printing national IDs,” he said.

He, therefore, expressed gratitude to the United States embassy in Malawi, through Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for the support rendered to NRB in procuring the high advanced printers.

Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Colleen Zamba, said the initiative will enable NRB to maximize its service delivery by doubling the ID printing rate.

"The printer has the capacity to produce 3,500 cards per day unlike the machines the Bureau currently has which was producing about 200 cards a day. This will reduce waiting time,” she said.

CDC representative, Dr Verita Buie, said US government recognizes the ongoing challenges NRB is facing.

"With the new printers we are providing Malawi the capacity for printing nearly a double ID printing capacity and we expect delivery time to be about 30 days,” she said.

Buie emphasized that the right to person identification is vital as it grants an individual access to key services such as education, health as well as voting.

In 2015 US government, through CDC with funding from the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) supported NRB in expanding birth and death registration in Malawi through the two five-year cooperation agreements worth over US$7 million.

"We are delighted with the progress made so far having expanded birth and death registration from only four facilities in 2015 to all facilities in all 28 districts in the country, while community registration has been introduced in 18 districts in the country as part of the civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) through which mothers can be able to access birth certificates for their children before leaving the hospital,” she said.