Immigration beats President Chakwera’s ultimatum, resumes issuance of e-passport, slashes fees by 55%
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services has met the directive of President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera to resume printing of passports within 21 days.
At the launch of two online systems, the Malawi Business Registration System (MBRS) and the Land Information Management System (LIMS), at the Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) on February 29, 2024, President Chakwera challenged information and communication technology (ICT) experts to expedite the restoration of the passport printing system.
This was after the Head of State had revealed during the presentation of the State of the Nation Address (SONA) in the National Assembly that the system had been hacked and that the hackers were demanding huge sums of money as a ransom.
Chakwera warned that he would not allow his people to continue suffering to get passports when the country has plenty of ICT technocrats.
He later summoned ICT gurus from from the Department of E-Government in the Ministry of Information, the National Registration Bureau in the Ministry of Homeland Security, and the Department of Innovation and Creativity in the Office of the President and Cabinet, MACRA and ICT Association of Malawi (ICTAM) whom he challenged to identify the problem and find a solution to it.
Last week, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services announced that it was making significant progress in its efforts to resume issuance of the passports.
This was followed up by another announcement on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, from the department that the restoration of the e-Passports Issuance System has been completed.
The department’s Director General, Brigadier General Charles Kalumo, stated that the development means that the e-Passport Issuance Services have resumed.
Kalumo added that the printing of passports will start gradually in Lilongwe this week before expanding the services to other regions.
“Further, the department is pleased to inform the public that government has reduced the e-Passport fee by 55 percent for local Malawians, from K90, 000 to K50, 000, for ordinary passports with waiting processing time of 10 days when the system is fully calibrated and operating optimally. More details will be announced soon when the Honourable Ministers of Homeland Security and Information hold a press conference,” reads the DG’s announcement.
Kalumo thanked Malawians for exercising patience during the time the e-passport issuance system was being fixed by a team of local experts from various entities who ‘worked around the clock to complete the task within the timeframe set by His Excellency the President’.
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