The newly commissioned Enhanced Passport Production Centre in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital has received 10,000 booklets to enable it meet demands from the south – south zone.
The new passport production centre, which was officially declared open by the minister of interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola yesterday, will now be responsible for the production of passport demands from Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states.
Aregbesola who disclosed that they have delivered 10,000 passports to the centre, in addition to the fact that there are no backlogs to be cleared, boasted that in some advanced countries, it takes months to procure passports from new centres.
He said in addition to the standardised timeline, they have also introduced tracking mechanism in the application process, to enable applicants monitor the progress of their application.
He said, “We are also introducing data capture centres all over the country before the end of this year, to eliminate physical contacts with NIS officials. We shall continue to introduce necessary and available innovations to passport administration in order to best serve applicants in our quest for establishing citizenship integrity.”
“We have left no stone unturned in our quest to make passports available to Nigerians. Last year alone, we provided 1.3 million passports to Nigerians. As of today, there is no booklets shortage in Nigeria.
“As at the second quarter of this year (in June), the NIS have provided 645,000 passports out of the 750,000 applications received. To address the challenge of the backlog, we have sent 11,000 booklets to Ikoyi, 11,000 to Alausa and 8,000 to FESTAC centres in Lagos.
“We have also sent sufficient booklets to all the centres nationwide to address this challenge. There is therefore no excuse again for delay and non-issuance within a reasonable period,” minister told the cheering public.
The minister also urged the listening public to make sure they apply by themselves online to avoid being shortchanged by unscrupulous elements.
He reiterated that a window of six weeks and three weeks for fresh application and renewal respectively have been opened, after biometric data capture, by which time, other things being equal, the passport will be ready for collection.
According to him, the timeline is to enable NIS investigate and validate the claims of applicants and confer integrity on the passport issued.
On his part, Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike, who was represented by his deputy, Dr Ipalibo Gogo Banigo, promised to continue to support the Nigeria Immigration Service in the state, as it was the policy of his administration.
He said, “We would continue to support the Nigeria Immigration Service, just as we provided the building now housing the production centre.
“Just as we provide support to all security agencies in the state and in particular, the agencies under the ministry of Interior, we would continue to prioritize the welfare of the citizens of the state,” Wike stated.
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