Nigerians seeking to get the nation’s green passport will by December 2023 be able to upload their passport photographs online with specifications, alongside their supporting documents , to avoid unnecessary delays in the processing of the international travel document instead of going for capturing at the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, announced the innovation while giving a two-week timeline for the processing of passport applications nationwide, adding that the era of Nigerians waiting for months to get their international passports was over.
He gave the assurance at a media parley to review his directive to the Nigeria Immigration Service where he ordered them to clear over 204,000 backlog of passport applications, Wednesday, in Abuja.
While warning that he would not allow the attitude of a very negligible fraction of NIS officers cast aspersions on the work of the majority of good officers, Dr. Tunji-Ojo said he has perused all the contracts and agreements the ministry and its agencies had entered into with service providers, and promised that “in the next couple of months, passport applicants would be able to upload their own passport photographs via the immigration portal, rather than go to passport offices for such capture.”
According to him, applicants would only be required to visit the passport offices for their biometrics enrolment.
He said, this way, “Instead of the offices capturing maybe 400 applicants a day, they will be able to accommodate more people. These are some of the innovations we are bringing. Even though we know what the exchange rate is, we are not increasing passport fees.”
Dr Tunji-Ojo, who apologised profusely to Nigerians that the clearance of the backlog spilled into three weeks as against the two weeks deadline he initially gave the Service, praised officers and men of the NIS for working day and night including weekends and public holidays to meet with his directive.
He said, “When you apply for visa, you do that and we are advancing in that line. Also, your supporting documents should be uploaded online too. We don’t want the past situation whereby people spend the whole day at the passport offices.”
The minister explained that while procurement of visa is a privilege, acquiring international passports is a right, hence, the commitment of President Bola Tinubu not to increase the cost of passport application in spite of the foreign exchange volatility.
His words, “You’ll recall that on September 7, we made a promise to sort out the backlogs in two weeks but we made it in three weeks, and I sincerely want to apologise to Nigerians for that.”
According to him, “The Renewed Hope administration of President Bola Tinubu is one that matches its words with actions. The issue of passport must be a fight and not a privilege. Visa is a privilege but passport is a right and we are happy that today, we have been able to handle over the rights of Nigerians to them.
“For us, we are assured that if it can work in NIS, it can work anywhere else. Nigeria is undergoing a process.
“We inherited 204,332 enrolments without passports being issued. People that had applied and captured. That was the figure and we gave a marching order because the president was also on our necks to bring solutions and succour to Nigerians.
“We went into strategic meetings with the NIS and with the support of our service providers, we were able to increase printing machines to four in passport offices where we had two. Our service providers gave us the machines at no cost.
“The NIS personnel were doing three shifts, working 24/7 to make sure that we cleared the backlogs and to ensure that never again are we going to have backlogs of passport production.
“We want to ensure that nobody waits for more than two weeks to get their passports.
“As of October 1, we had cleared all the 204,332 backlogs and from the records produced by NIS, the number of passport already collected is 91,981. Outstanding but available is 112,351.”
The minister, who pleaded with Nigerians to please go and collect their passports, warned against giving of money to anybody, saying, “If there is any passport office where you have done your capturing and they do not give you your passports, please lodge your complaints via the following; 0802 375 3414, preferably SMS and Whatsapp. Or email [email protected]
“The government of President Tinubu understands the needs of the people. As a person, I do not want anybody to go and stay in a passport office for more than 10 minutes.”
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