Minister of Home Affairs urges Zambians to acquire NRCs

Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo has urged citizens to turn up in large numbers and acquire National Registration Cards (NRCs)in the on-going Phase two of the mobile NRC issuance exercise.

Mr Kampyongo explained that his ministry has suspended the police report requirement for those who lost their cards in order to ease the process of acquiring the national document.

He emphasized that acquiring an NRC comes with numerous benefits such as the identification as the citizen and eligibility to take part in the electoral process.

The Home Affairs Minister said this when he attended the induction ceremony of Reverend Penius Mbewe at Matero’s Reformed Church in Zambia (RCZ) Congregation in Lusaka.

“The phase two of the mobile NRC registration is exercise is ongoing, I urge you all to take advantage of and register so that you are counted as a citizen of this country. Aside that, we are decentralizing the offices to Chelstone, Matero, and Chawama so that we decongest the head office and the Boma office. We have removed the police report requirement so that you do not pay anything for the document,” he counseled.

The Home Affairs Minister who later toured Muchinga ward 24 in Matero constituency to appreciate the progress of the exercise, pointed out that his ministry will within this week provide the digital machines to expedite the process of mobile NRC issuance in the five provinces.

Mr Kampyongo who is also Shiwang’andu Member of Parliament called on the church to continue praying for President Edgar Lungu in his quest to take the country to great heights.

“As the church continue praying for President Lungu so that God showers him with more wisdom to take this nation to high levels even amidst COVID-19 period. For some of us who have the privilege to serve in his government, we can attest how humble he is and we all need to pray for him as he spurs the social and economic development of the country,” Mr Kampyongo said.

Speaking earlier, RCZ Synod Moderator Edwin Zulu urged the congregants to take advantage of both mobile NRC issuance and Electoral Commission of Zambia online voter pre-registration exercise.

Professor Reverend Zulu noted that the Reformed Church in Zambia has a lot of young people in all its over 200 congregations who should as well take part in all the affairs of the nation.

Prof Rev Zulu called on the youths to ignore all misleading information about voter registration and seize the opportunity to register.

“As I remind you all that we need to continue observing the health guidelines under the new normal, let us also take advantage of the ongoing mobile NRC registration exercise and the ECZ online registration since a lot of members in all the congregations are young people who are from the digital urge and should seize this opportunity without listening to those peddling lies about the noble undertaking,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, the newly inducted Matero Resident Minister Penius Mbewe hailed President Lungu for providing a favorable environment for the church to operate in spite of the COVID-19 shocks.

Rev Mbewe further thanked government and the Reformed Church in Zambia for the relentless support to his mission in all the last four congregations he has served.

Phase Two of the mobile NRC issuance exercise that commenced on 10th September is currently taking place in Southern, Western, Muchinga, Central and Lusaka Provinces.

Phase one was done in Luapula, Northern, Eastern, North-Western and Copperbelt Provinces ran for 40 days and concluded on the 9th of September, 2020.