The Minister of State for Defence, Hon. Jacob Oboth, stated that the government is making progress in issuing polycarbonate passports to ordinary passport holders. During the plenary sitting, Oboth reported that a total of 104,000 polycarbonate passports have been distributed since March 2023.
“The upgrade to polycarbonate passports for diplomatic and service passports will occur once the existing stocks have been used up,” Oboth explained. He further stated that “the Ministry of Internal Affairs, under a multisectoral committee led by the Rt Hon. Prime Minister, decided to import polycarbonate passports due to the absence of a security printing factory in Entebbe.”
He assured the House that “the transition from paper-based e-passports to polycarbonate e-passports has been smooth to prevent inconvenience to passport holders.” Oboth emphasized that “the cost will remain at Shs250,000, the same as the paper-based e-passport being upgraded.”
The government has faced pressure from the East African Community Secretariat concerning the quality and failure of the paper biodata page e-passport to meet the agreed and recommended passport standard requirements set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
