Nawaeb, Civil Registry ink K500,000 deal for NID cards

NAWAEB in Morobe became the 21st district to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Civil Registry office, committing K500,000 to have its people acquire national identification cards (NID).
Local MP Kennedy Wenge signed the MoU with registrar general Noel Mobiha on Saturday in Lae.
Minister for National Planning and Monitoring Sam Basil was also present to witness the signing.
Wenge said that it was important to give people accessibility and mobility to socio-economic activities into the future by acquiring NID cards as per the Government’s requirement.
“Importantly, our rural children accepted into universities can have their NID cards to access scholarship loans from the higher education loan programme (Help),” he said.
“The K500,000 could have been invested into road maintenance, however, investing into the NID to assist our local people, small and medium entrepreneurs and, importantly, tertiary students, acquire their NID cards to enable them seek Help to continue their education was crucial.
“Investing in human resources is more crucial than the road that can be washed away by rain tomorrow.”
Wenge said the NID registration would begin at Weduru in Labuta, Bukawa coastline, followed by Wain-Erap, Nabak and the seven Nawaeb urban wards within the Ahi local level government in
Lae.
Mobiha said Nawaeb was the third district after North Bougainville and Usino-Bundi this year to sign the MoU.
Out of Morobe’s nine districts, Bulolo, Tewae-Siassi, Finschhafen and Nawaeb have signed the MoU with Civil Registry office to conduct NID card registration for their people. Mobiha said as Morobe was the largest province in country it was important for its MPs to
take the lead in NID card registration to enable their citizens accessibility to socio-economic activities.