Uganda Mission In London Launches New E-Passport System

Uganda’s High Commission in London (UK) has launched the new E-Passport system, according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs sources, making it the first among Uganda’s Mission abroad to operationalise the new system. The rollout is expected to be followed by other Missions in different locations namely Washington DC (USA), Ottawa (Canada), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Pretoria (South Africa), Copenhagen (Denmark), and Beijing (China).

Julius Peter Moto, Uganda’s High Commission to the United Kingdom (UK), also accredited to Ireland, and Maj Gen Apollo Kasiita Gowa, Director Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC), accompanied by Brig. Gen. Johnson Namanya Abaho, Commissioner for Citizenship and Passport Control, and Laurent von Buren, Finance Director and Uganda Security Printing Company (USPC), Co-President over the event.

In his remarks, Amb. Moto welcomed the delegation officials led by Maj. Gen. Apollo Kasiita-Gowa and conveyed a message of gratitude to the Ministry of Internal Affairs particularly the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and USPC for the enormous efforts in ensuring operationalization of the new E-Passport system commencing with the Uganda Mission in London as the pilot.

“The new E-Passport system would greatly reduce the time it takes to get a new passport processed and issued. The system comes into operation as Uganda approaches the deadline for phasing out of the Machine-Readable Passports (MRP) due on 4 April 2022,” said Amb Moto.

Maj. Gen. Apollo Kasiita-Gowa, in his remarks, commended Amb. Julius Peter Moto and the staff of the High Commission for their commitment to ensure Ugandans living in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and surrounding areas of accreditation are assisted and receive quality services. He called on the Ugandan community in UK and Ireland to take advantage of the new system to apply for passports, considering that after the deadline of 4 April 2022, the Machine-Readable Passports (MRPs) will not be in use. He further emphasised that MRPs will only be used by citizens returning back to Uganda but not to any other country.

Maj Gen. Gowa also highlighted that the new passport system is designed to reduce the turn-around time in processing the passports to effectively serve Ugandans in the Diaspora. A new Passport application Processing Center with biometric equipment was officially handed over to the High Commission by Maj Gen Apollo Kasiita-Gowa after which 10 applications were spontaneously processed using the new system.

Ms. Racheal Nabakemba, one of the applicants was among the recipients of the newly processed passports. Also present at the event were Senior Officials from the Uganda High Commission, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NITA-U, VERIDOS GmbH company, USPC, and representatives of the Ugandan Community.