Basic Existence

Last week I chaperoned my 16 year old son to the Department of National Registration under the Ministry of Home Affairs to get his first ‘carry on person’ identity card namely; a National Registration Card or NRC.

In the process, I was advised at the National Registration Office on Dedan Kimathi Road that my own NRC was no longer useable and needed to be replaced with a new card that would have a more recent photograph as my existing card was one of those issued in the 1970’s and did not have all the new security features that are now standard on NRC’s.

I immediately left for the ‘Old Boma’ building near the Central Police Station where the records of my NRC are kept and was pleased to note that there were very few people standing in the queue. After a few minutes my turn came up and the woman responsible for checking my records in the Registry only took a few minutes to verify that my existing NRC was genuine and referred me to the cash office to pay my K3,100 NRC replacement fee. That exercise took less than 5 minutes and I went back to the Registry where the earlier woman immediately typed up my new replacement NRC. My wait in the Studio was longer due to the requirement that photographs are only taken in groups of four owing to the fact that the old Polaroid ‘Snap and Give’ camera’s in use place 4 photographs on one film card. Eventually when the required 4 applicants were assembled the photographer woman took my photograph, assembled the NRC for lamination, and a few minutes later I was out of the building with my hot new NRC.

There are some interesting perceptions to be made through the experience of replacing my NRC. The first was that the Registry appeared to be very well arranged and the woman working in the section was very familiar with the system and therefore worked very efficiently. The second observation was that none of the staff were distracted by phone calls on their landlines or mobile sets. They systematically worked towards moving the queue forward and dispensing whatever service was required to the public. The third issue worth noting was that the section seemed to be dominated by women with the exception of one man in the cashier’s office. I had made this observation about the prevalence of women in this section twice before, when assisting my brother and father with NRC replacements during the last 10 years.

Now that I was up to date with my credentials as the father of the 16 year old that was looking forward to having his first taste of unique basic existence as a Zambian and as an individual, we proceeded back to the Dedan Kimathi offices to go about the business of securing his NRC.

The staff at this office was more apt to respond to the public with a ‘wait in the corridor’ answer to enquiries, or to redirect a customer to another office without too much explanation. This could be because the staff are too overwhelmed with work and have to multitask in addition to responding to special cases.

I was pleased to note that one officer insisted that we resolve any issues in respect to the issuance of my son’s NRC. Where she needed higher authority, she referred us to that relevant office for action. We shuttled back and forth a couple to times owing to some mistakes in capturing data from the Record of Birth 16 years ago, and eventually found ourselves waiting once again in a Studio and hoping that we would soon make up the 4 customers that are required for the Studio staff to take the photographs. After 20 minutes the numbers added up to 4 and ‘click, click, click, click, ‘snap and give’ again. We soon walked out of the building with my son’s new NRC and he proudly and protectively placed it in his shirt pocket feeling very Zambian and looking forward to registering and voting in the 2011 General and Presidential Elections.

The experiences at the Department of National Registration indicated to me that the systems are in place, that the staff is knowledgeable about the work that they do, that the Department is not very well equipped, and that some basic Computerization would greatly assist in making the Department much more efficient and productive.

The NRC’s are typed on manual typewriters, while on the other hand the Birth Certificates are printed via a computer system. The photographs are taken with a film based camera which must be very expensive to maintain and run, but new Passports are being printed with imbedded digital photographs that require no film at all. The numerous searches and verifications are done manually and are prone to records not being in the right place thereby introducing delays and repeated follow up visits by the public, when a little computerization would make searches only a click away on the computer screen. The current system requires some dedicated and focused staff to deliver services to the public, but a more robust way of re-engineering the Department would be via simple and predictable systems that are process driven rather than discretion or personality influenced.

Since the NRC is the first piece of national identification for every Zambian or resident, it also becomes the most useful tracing mechanism for displaced people, unidentified corpses, various documentation, educational qualifications, tax references, family trees, bank references, and military – civil service and security history.

Many of our other references often refer to the NRC. The issuance of a passport is dependent on a NRC. The registration of a company requires that a NRC number must be quoted in the appropriate forms. The registration for taxation requires the NRC number to identify the tax payer. The submission of pension funds depends on the NRC as part of the account description. Insurance policies require the NRC number to be part of the insured’s identification details. The many licenses and permits issued by state institutions and private bodies demand the NRC number to be quoted on the various documents for proper identification of the holder.

It is my hope that the general public experiences a similar treatment to the one I experienced last Friday, or better. We must acknowledge however, that the population of the country is steadily growing. There will be need for purposeful investment in technology, re-engineering of systems, and continuous human resource development if we are to expect the Department of National Registration, or indeed any other Government institution, to deliver efficient and productive services to the public.

Seasons' greetings to all Zambians out there. The basic existence of an individual impacts on the basic existence of any company. If we can fix the fundamentals, then there will be hope for Credit References, improved Financial Services, Trade Credit Facilities, broader Tax collection, and much better planning at Government level and Local Governemnt level.

Published 23 December 2008