Malawi e-passport roll out delays

Officials at the Immigration Department say the much anticipated e-passport will not be rolled out in January 2021 as planned.

Immigration department spokesperson Joseph Chauwa said this was due to some challenges faced due to Covid-19.

He could however not say the exact date when the e-passport will roll out.

Chauwa, however, said reveal the department has finalized all technicalities towards fully migrating to the e-Passport.

He said once fully implemented, the usual old passport booklets will be cancelled in line with international standards.

Malawi was supposed to introduce the e-passport last month, November.

The Immigration department and Citizenship Services (DICS) was supposed to digitise its operation by October  2020 and replace Machine Readable Zone  passports currently in use with electronic passports (e-passports).

Immigration Department has been migrating from analogue systems to  e-services with the introduction of e-passport set to meet  International standards.