Registrar-general Receives 700 Passport Applications Per Day As Backlog Now At 170 000

Registrar-general Clemence Masango said his department has a backlog passport of 170 000 passports which has accumulated since May. He said this has been caused by an acute shortage of foreign currency needed to buy the raw materials. Speaking before the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs, Masango said

There is quite a big appetite for passports in the country and, on average, we get over 700 applications per day of new passports, but all consumables and ink for the passports are imported and require foreign currency.

While we are allowed to retain fees we collect for recurrent expenditure use, we have to queue with everyone for foreign currency, and, as a result, we have a backlog of 170 000 passport applications backdating to May 2018.

We wish the retention fund can be maintained because passports and national identity cards have an international component in that the polyethene material and ink used are all imported. We also want to embark on mobile registration for IDs and not wait for elections as a way of servicing people. During election periods, there is high demand for registration and if we do it throughout the year, we can solve that problem.

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