A CONCERN … NIRA
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“Hello Doctor please keep me anonymous.
My name is Benjamin (not my real name), and I work with NIRA as a Registration Assistant. I had the opportunity to serve during the mass enrollment and renewal exercise, and we were paid for that work. I appreciate
After the exercise, some of us were retained but asked to continue working as volunteers without pay. As you can imagine, life becomes difficult without an income, yet we are still expected to carry out our duties.
We��ve been informed that government funding is insufficient for NIRA to maintain staff on payroll. However, the work we do—issuing national IDs—is critical. Despite not being officially facilitated, we continue to serve. Those huge crowds you see are being managed by people that don't get paid like it's a useless thing to government. We starve in villages till u get home and find sth to eat...
This situation has unfortunately contributed to cases where some staff solicit money from clients. It’s not always out of bad intention, but rather survival. Many of us are holding on in the hope of being retained in future projects while we search for stable employment elsewhere.
It is discouraging to see government spending in other areas while essential services like this remain underfunded. Beyond earning a living, we are committed to serving our communities—but right now, we are doing so without support.
We kindly ask that our concerns be heard, and that government considers increasing funding to NIRA so that staff can be fairly compensated and continue delivering services with full commitment.”