The East African Community (EAC) e-passport will come into use by the end of 2018, government has said.

An electronic version of the hard cover book, the e-passport, was formally launched last March by regional heads of state in Arusha, Tanzania. The digital passport is a blend of paper and an electronic document. It uses a contactless smart card technology, a computer chip and antenna embedded in the front, back cover, or centre page, of the passport.

According to a statement from the ministry of East African Affairs, the e-passport was meant to become operational this month, but not all states are ready for it.

“As Uganda, we have a committee which is fast-tracking the procurement and once they are ready, Ugandans will be informed,” Cris Magoba, the ministry’s public relations officer, said in the statement.

“[The passport] will be fully digitised and incorporating biometric security, making it fully compliant with international best practices and, therefore, accepted at border controls all over the world.”

With these security features, authorities believe that it will be easier to negotiate visa-free access to countries outside the region, thus enhancing both trade and travel.

Within the issuance period, holders of Ugandan and old EAC passports shall continue using them until they are phased out. The e-passport will maintain the provision of six months provision of stay in an EAC member country.

Electronic passports provide travellers with benefits such as use of automated border clearance or “e-gates,”automated issuance of boarding passes, and faster travel arrangements with airlines. In Africa, countries that use the e-passport include Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Liberia and Togo.

The EAC launched the regional passport in 1998, to simplify movement of people within the region. Its use was, however, limited because it was not recognised internationally.

EXPECTATIONS, RESERVATIONS

Asked about the burden of having many documents such as the AU, EAC, Ugandan passport and national ID, Magoba said all documents serve a different purpose and that it is mandatory for each Ugandan to have them.

“The national ID is for you to be identified and to access services (like scholarships, jobs, healthcare, participating in elections as a voter or candidate, etc) within Uganda. It is also used to travel within the EAC even when you don’t have a passport. The new e-passport will facilitate you to travel anywhere in the world,” he wrote.

The move has attracted mixed reactions from frequent travellers within the region. Kampala businessman Paul Lukwago, a regular traveller to Kenya’s Mombasa port, told The Observer by telephone that the move would be good only if it caters for technological glitches.

“If it is electronic, I think it is OK. But there may be frustrations at border points when either your card or the machines malfunction. I hope they have prepared for that possibility too,” Lukwago said.

For Isaac Mpambo, a Ugandan teacher in Tanzania, the issuance of this regional e-passport will ease movement of labour within East Africa.

“If it can help to make movement of labour from say Uganda to any other country because of the biometric data element that they are talking about, and I don’t have to sign here or there, I gladly welcome it,” Mpambo said.

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