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Herald Reporter

The Registrar-General’s Department has increased its production capacity for passports from 60 to 800 a day and is targeting to print 8 000 in the same period in the next few weeks following the delivery of new equipment and consumables.

Production had plummeted as a result of foreign currency shortages that were affecting the procurement of consumables with the backlog currently at 300 000.

The update was given by Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa during Wednesday’s post-Cabinet briefing.

“Cabinet received a progress report by the Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage (Cain Mathema) on the resolution of the challenges currently affecting the production of passports in the country,” she said.

“The Minister advised Cabinet that the new equipment and consumables required to upscale the production of passports had now been procured. Following this development, the Registrar-General’s Office now has the capacity to produce 800 passports per day, up from the 60 passports which had of late become the daily maximum output.

“Government will continue to mobilise further resources in order to ensure that the daily maximum production of passports is raised to 8 000.”