August 9, 2021
By Ilyasa Baa
The National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) has been blamed in Port Loko and Kambia districts for the poor turnout in the registration process which has been extended to 7th August.
Initially, the entire registration process for the Northwest region was scheduled to take place from 26th July to 4th August, 2021. According to parents in Port Loko, most of them took their children below five years to the centres not knowing it was meant for five years and above.
In Lunsar, people waited till 2 PM before the registration commenced. “Not all of us have radios so we did not hear the jingle”, a farmer in Bamoi told A-Z newspaper.
The Director of Operations at NCRA, Abu Bakarr Javombo has said though there had been challenges with certain centres, the Authority was able to put modalities in place and settle the issues. He said some centres are hard to reach that is why they keep sending the Mobile Patrol Team to register people in those locations. He noted that before the commencement of the process, they had engagements with MPs and their constituents. He highlighted that an ICT Operation Room was established to provide technical support for the centers through a hotline.
This initiative, he bluffed, helps the process to run smoothly across the 2000 centres created. However, the Eastern Region is going to be the next phase. It has been observed from the pilot phase done in the Western Area Rural and Urban and by extension, the Northwest phase that every region has its own unique challenge.