By Benjamin Mwibo
According to an analysis released, since introduction of electronic passports in 2018, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has embarked on sensitisation of the public through social media, radios , television, newspapers, trading centres and even the market places, something that has led to reported increase in numbers of applicants.
Due to such kind of awareness, the figures have been tripled from 1000 to 3000 and more passports issued in a single a day, with incomes of about 800 millions collected per day still, Simon Peter Mundeyi the Public Relations Manager said at ministry headquarters in kampala.
“With the job opportunities from other countries at the peak of 2018-2019, Ugandans have been also able to travel for work and bring back revenue to the government,” Mundeyi said. This is in form of interpol payments, medical checks, some money being paid to Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development for authorization letters and investments put in place like buildings.
He added, much as government gets money through taxes, there has been a mechanism put in place of trying to help many girls who travel out for work and find challenges as many complain on social media, especially due to mistreatment by bosses. A case in point is the bi- lateral agreement signed between the government of Uganda and that of Saudi Arabia.
For now the corruption issues and brokers have been reduced unlike before were the earliest passport one could get would be in a period of two months, because it was a manual process and forms to be filled physically, the LCI’s, LC2’s DISO’s were also key players in this process and ofcourse cost attached, Mundeyi described.
The electronic passports system has therefore knocked out brokers technically and people are much aware of the knowledge through social media and campaigns on radios and TVs, however, with improvement in technology and extension of internet access by government, every Ugandan shall be able to apply for the passport even those deep in rural areas.