NIRA's Tech5 ABIS — Uganda's Biometric De-Duplication Powering a Single National Digital ID

Uganda's National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) is replacing its legacy national ID system with a MOSIP-based platform built by Tahaluf as prime contractor, with Technoforte as system integrator and Tech5 supplying the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) used for de-duplication. ABIS cross-references fingerprints, iris scans and facial images so each citizen receives one unique identifier before a card is issued.

The project's stated ambition is to bring 50 million people into a single digital identity ecosystem and migrate 30 million legacy records, laying the technical foundation for a once-only registry that other agencies can eventually query instead of re-collecting citizen data, with civil registry modules for births and deaths intended for later integration.

A mass campaign launched in May 2025 targeted 15.8 million renewals and 17.2 million first-time registrations. By February 2026, NIRA reported more than 28 million identity records migrated from the legacy database and over 35 million total enrolments captured in the new population register.

As of the February 2026 update, 14.3 million renewals (90.5% of target) and 6.4 million first-time enrolments (37.3% of target) had been completed, with 10.1 million cards printed and 2.5 million collected. During the drive, NIRA also flagged more than 10,000 national ID records for inconsistencies such as falsified details or unauthorised changes, a by-product of automated biometric and data cross-matching rather than a designed impact metric.

The figures show the rollout is real but still well short of universal coverage, and no independently audited false-match/non-match rates, cost data or outcome evaluation, such as a measured reduction in duplicate benefit claims, have been published; the evidence base so far is operational and vendor/agency-reported rather than independently verified.