Registry focuses on students while waiting for appointment

By SAWATO HAHAMBU
A CIVIL Registry officer is to be appointed to prioritise registrations for tertiary students who need to apply for education loans, Papua New Guinea National Identity (NID) general registrar Noel Mobiha says.
“In fact, we have been carrying out registrations for students throughout the festive season to facilitate their application for loan programmes,” he
said.
Mobiha told The National that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Department of Higher Education Science Research and Technology was yet to be inked for the appointment of a Civil Registry Officer.
“Because it is the Christmas and New Year holidays, everyone is on break,” he explained.
“We hope to get the MoU signed in January for the students to get their NID cards.”
PNG NID issuance manager Leroy Kwa told The National: “We are running out of time during this hectic period.
“Our goal is to have every Papua New Guinean registered by 2021.
“Students are required to provide their 2020 acceptance letter or transcript with ID cards for registration.”
Acting deputy registrar Salome Bogosia said the ID registration process was slow because there was only one machine to print the NID cards and funding support for the project was poor.
“Every year, we receive the same budget to carry out the project but the funds are never enough with the population of PNG,” she said.
“The cost of one registration is K23.50.
“If 2.3 million people are to be registered a year, we need more than K50 million to meet targeted number of registrations.”
Kwa said registration were also being carried out after office hours until 10pm to cater for the working class.
“We want everyone to register but our main priority is the students who need their NID cards to go back to school in January.
Meanwhile, mobile registrations have kicked off in other NID registry centres in provinces.
More information on the registry will be posted on the PNG Civil and Identity Registry Facebook page.