The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced that the age of waiting months for passports is over.
This came as it established a two-week schedule for passport application processing.
Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Minister of Interior, announced this on Wednesday in Abuja while updating the Nigeria Immigration Service on his mandate to clear over 204,000 backlogs of passport applications.
According to him:
“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.
“For us, we are assured that if it can work in the 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 clear 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 the NIS, the number of passports already collected is 91,981. Outstanding but available is 112,351.”
He also emphasised President Bola Tinubu’s resolve to not raise the cost of passport applications notwithstanding foreign currency volatility.
The minister stated that he had reviewed all contracts and agreements entered into by the ministry and its agencies with service providers and that in the coming months, passport applicants will be able to upload their passport photographs via the immigration portal rather than going to passport offices for such capture.
He stated that applicants will simply need to visit passport offices to enrol in biometrics.
cc: Punch Ng
