South Sudan to resume printing of passports, nationality certificates next week

JUBA – The ministry of interior’s department of passports and immigration has announced on Thursday that it will receive booklets for printing passports and nationality on Saturday and will next resume printing of national documents after nearly one year.

The passports and immigration identification server has been blocked by its host, the German company Muhlbauer, after the government failed to pay annual software license fee of around $60 million.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Juba, Director General of the Nationality and Passports at the ministry of interior, Gen. Atem Marol Bair, disclosed that they will have 22,000 nationality IDs and 39,000 diplomatic passports this week.

“We have talked to German company Muhlbauer and they promised us by Saturday, we are going to receive 22,000 cards of ID and we are going to receive 39,000 cards of a diplomatic passport,” Maral told reporters in Juba on Thursday.

He revealed that the government has cleared almost half of the outstanding arrears to it owed the company, which specialized in smart card and passport technology.

“The Ministry of Finance paid 1.4 million U.S dollars, German company Muhlbauer and now we are left with a balance of 5 million U.S dollars and it will be cleared by the government very soon,” he said.

He disclosed that the Immigration Department will immediately resume issuing of National IDs and passports once it receives the booklets

“As I told you, I don’t want to go far but within two weeks citizens are going to receive their passport and nationality,” he said.