German firm to print passports, nationality IDs as govt clears debts

The Directorate of Nationality, Passport, and Immigration has renewed its agreement with the German company that prints nationality and passport certificates.

The Deputy Director of ICT at the Directorate, Lt. Col David Oromo Jobo says the government managed to pay, in installments, the 5.9 million dollars owed to the company.

David said the company will continue printing the nationality and passport certificates as it waits for the pending payment balance.

“The able leadership of Lt. General Atem Marol, managed to make a number of payments through installment payments that we made that came to about 5.9 million dollars. We still have a pending balance which is to be looked into by our leadership,” Oromo said.

The remaining balance that the company still needs from the government is 1.7 million US dollars.

“In some of the discussions and the agreement that we have come out with, we came out with a solution that the company has accepted, and we came to an agreement that they will continue supplying us with the documents as we wait for the pending payments.”

In December 2022, the Department of Nationality, Passports, and Immigration extended the lifespan of passports from five to ten years.

Lieutenant General Atem Marol Biar, the department’s director said the decision aims to reduce the printing and refurbishment costs.

Meanwhile, Oromo further said that the directorate agreed to add the visa pages from forty-eight to sixty-four pages.

“We are looking forward to having something called change request, and some of this change request need payment, which our leadership managed to clear out with the company.”

“Every citizen will be able to have our normal passports. But for the next sessions, we shall be looking at a passport to be of Five years to ten years and then increment of visa pages from forty-eight to sixty-four.”