The Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security held a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday for the construction of a Civic Affairs regional office in Nkurenkuru of the Kavango West region.
The groundbreaking ceremony of the Civic Affairs regional office to cost N.dollars 70 million was led by Vice President Dr Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
Construction is expected to commence on or before 13 August 2024 and will be completed in two years.
In her keynote address, Nandi-Ndaitwah said the regional office is expected to significantly improve the efficiency and accessibility of the ministry’s services including birth and death registrations, national identity cards, passports, and immigration matters.
She said this would reduce travel times and costs, thus promoting inclusivity and better service delivery.
‘The rising population figures of this region at 123 266 tells us that as a government, we have to speed up the infrastructure development that will enable us to serve this fast-growing population,
‘ she said.
The vice president said the construction of the office in Kavango West is critical for active services to be provided to the population.
She said that 13 years ago the Namibia International Demographic Survey reported then that Kavango West had the highest percentage of people without birth certificates which stood at 32.2 per cent.
‘However, I can speak with confidence now that the number must have been reduced as the ministry has been conducting outreach programmes all over the country including in the Kavango West Region,’ she said.
The outreach programmes she added will continue until the backlog has significantly reduced and government has reached its target.
‘It is painful to be undocumented. I experienced this situation when I was a student in Britain. For this reason, Namibia prescribed the United Nations resolution to ensure that citizens of the world must be properly documented,’ Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
Meanwhile, the Vice President also gave a directive to the ministry for the reside
nts of the region to be employed in the construction of the civic office, and gave assurance that she would return to the region in August to witness the beginning of the construction of the office.
Source: The Namibia News Agency