Uganda’s National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has deployed more than 5,665 next-generation biometric registration kits across the country as part of its 2024-2026 enrollment campaign, with the upgraded kits incorporating iris biometrics hardware from IriTech.
The new kits collect both fingerprint and iris biometrics, with iris capture handled by IriTech’s IriShield BK binocular scanner. NIRA’s goal is to reach 33 million people registered to the Ndaga Muntu national ID system, which is used to issue ID cards and support public service delivery and financial inclusion.
Iris biometrics were added to address enrollment barriers affecting more than one million Ugandans who had difficulty registering fingerprints, including elderly residents and manual laborers whose fingerprints may be worn or unclear. The addition of iris capture provides an alternative biometric modality for these groups while also strengthening overall resilience against identity fraud, IriTech said.
IriTech said NIRA’s decision to adopt its technology was driven in part by accuracy results from testing by NIST, along with global certifications including India’s STQC and BIS, and MOSIP L0 compliance. The IriShield-USB BK212U iris scanner was among the first devices certified to MOSIP’s MACP Framework, through an assessment by BixeLab.
The IriShield scanner includes on-board processing and liveness detection, in a compact and ruggedized design intended for reliable operation in remote rural areas with variable lighting and environmental conditions.
Uganda’s NIRA has also recently completed migration of more than 28 million biometric records to the MOSIP digital ID platform, marking the open source platform’s first completed brownfield implementation. The country’s national ID program has also introduced an online portal for pre-registration, part of a broader push to expand enrollment reach ahead of the current kit deployment campaign. The program serves as a reference case for large-scale MOSIP-based deployments across Africa.
Sources: IriTech
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
