The Uganda High Commission in London, UK, on Monday officially launched the operationalisation of the new e-Passport system.
The event was co-presided over by Uganda’s High Commissioner to the UK, Ambassador Julius Peter Moto, and Maj. Gen. Apollo Kasiita-Gowa, the Director Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC), accompanied by Brig. Gen. Johnson Namanya Abaho.
In his remarks, Amb. Moto welcomed the Uganda Immigration officials led by Maj. Gen. Apollo Kasiita-Gowa and conveyed a message of gratitude to the Ministry of Internal Affairs particularly Directorate Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and USPC.
Maj. Gen. Gowa, in his remarks commended Amb. Moto and the staff of the High Commission for their commitment to ensure that Ugandans living in the United Kingdom and Ireland and surrounding areas of accreditation are assisted and receive quality service.
A new Passport application Processing Centre with biometric equipment was officially handed over to the High Commission by Maj Gen Gowa after which 10 applications were spontaneously processed using the new system.
Also in attendance were senior officials from Uganda High Commission, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NITA-U, VERIDOS GmbH company, USPC and representatives of the Ugandan Community.
The High Commission is the first among Uganda’s mission’s abroad to operationalize the new system.
The roll out is expected to be followed by other missions in different locations namely; Washington DC (USA), Ottawa (Canada), Abu Dhabi, Pretoria, Copenhagen and Beijing (China).
The Ugandan government launched the Ugandan East African e-passport in 2018. A two-year transitional period followed to allow the phasing out of East African and international machine-readable passports. The initial deadline of Jan. 31 has been extended to April 4.
Ugandan machine-readable passports will no longer be valid for international travel after April 4, 2022, and will be replaced by international East African e-passports.