Malawians warned against aiding foreigners to get national Ids

Civic education experts are warning Malawians against aiding foreigners to get national IDs as the exercise gets underway Wednesday.

Paul Kanyenda, National Institute for Civic Education (Nice) district coordinator for Mchinji said the punishment for helping a foreigner get a national identity card is five years imprisonment with hard labour and K1 million fine.

“Some Malawians have just a tendency of helping foreigners get things they are not allowed to get, so this is just a warning to them,” he said.

Mchinji, a vibrant border agro-business district is one of the few districts starting the national IDs registration this Wednesday.

Foreigners from Burundi, Rwanda, Zambia, Somalia among others have settled in most districts and speak local dialects.

Other districts to start registration include Ntchisi, Nkhotakota, Dowa and Salima.

NRB public relations officer Norman Fulatira urged Malawians aged 16 and above to register as it is a criminal offence to overlook the exercise which will enable Malawians have national ID for the first time in history.

“Any Malawian citizen above the age of 16 is eligible to register for the ID. Infact every Malawian citizen is by law required to register,” Fulatira said.

He said the national ID would help bonafides citizens be recognised during voting, checkpoints and to be easily identified in the eventuality of accidents.

Fulatiraalso said it would help them most importantly in access of social services such as health and education, social protection services such as social cash transfer and banking services.

The expiry date of the cards is 10 years however because of the 2019 General Elections it will be issued between 3 to 10 years to avoid a lot of people coming for replacement in 2027. Meanwhile NRB has recruited 4,200 registration officers and supervisors to carry out the exercise which will be done in five phases.