President John Magufuli became the first Tanzanian to get the document at a ceremony when he launched the new EA e-passport at the immigration headquarters in Dar es Salaam.
The issuance of the e passports is part of a wider strategy by the region to enhance integration with the passports set to be rolled out in other EAC countries in the coming months. Nearly 50 African countries have issued e-passports to their citizens including Ghana, Gabon, Egypt, Morocco and Mauritius The 35th EAC Council of Ministers which convened on April 4, last year, directed partner states to begin issuing EA e-passport from January 31, 2018, the EAC heads of state equally approved the decision.
Yesterday, the Minister for Home Affairs, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba handed over e-passports to top government officials led by President Magufuli and Zanzibar President Dr Ali Mohammed Shein.
Dr Magufuli launched the new passport at a function that was attended by top government leaders and retired presidents. The difference between the current passport and the e-passport is that the e-passport has a chip that stores the passport holder’s bio-metric information. According to Dr Nchemba, Tanzanian passport holders will now be required to replace the documents with electronic ones and that applicants will now be required to pay 150,000/- to get the newly improved document.
“In order to avoid the mistakes we made by issuing passports to non-citizens, this time around, we will start the process afresh and a person who wants to possess the new document will have to bringthe National Identity Card,” he added.
The Minister insisted, however, that the current ones will remain in use for two years until January 2020, before they are phased out. The international travel document will have diplomatic, service and ordinary categories and will be valid for 10 years. Among the reasons the EAC is launching electronic passports are to step up the war against terrorism and keep abreast with technological advancements globally.
According to Dr Nchemba, the new document has more pages than the current one and with improved security features; it will be easier for Tanzanians who lose their passports while abroad to get immediate assistance from Tanzanian embassies. In her remarks, the Immigration Department Commissioner General Dr Anna Makakala said Tanzania had fully complied with standards and guidelines set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and EAC Chief of Immigration on travel document design, processing and issuance.
She said the immigration had already initiated e-passport online application forms that enable every Tanzanian from around the world to apply for the new document. However, the Commissioner General noted, those who wish to collect registration forms from all immigration offices were allowed to do so.
On revenue collection, Dr Makakala said her institution had managed to increase revenue collection, saying that between July and December 2017, the immigration department collected 85.6bn/- , adding that with the ongoing reforms revenue collection will equally go up.
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