Henceforth no Nigerian will have to wait for more than two weeks to get an international passport.
According to Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the era of Nigerians waiting for months to get their international passports is over.
Tunji-Ojo, announced a two-week timeline for the processing of passport applications.
He disclosed this at a news briefing in Abuja while updating Nigerians on the state of passport backlog in the country.
According to him, if you apply and have been captured, you will get your passport within two weeks, adding that the Nigeria Immigration Service had cleared all the 204,332 passport application backlogs.
The minister had 7th September, given a two-week deadline to the NIS to clear all passport application backlogs.
In his words, immigration service did three shifts to make sure that we clear the backlogs and to ensure that never again in the history of Nigeria, are we going to have a backlog.
“This is not a temporary relief but a permanent solution,” he assured.
The Minister said NIS and its partners would upgrade their systems in order to improve their services, adding that applicants would not be required to go to passport offices to be captured from December 2023.
“People will be able to upload their passport and supporting documents online. Only biometrics will be taken at the passport office.
“We are introducing passport front offices where people can go and process their passport close to where they reside. Solution providers have been given three months to activate this or their contract will be revoked,” the minister said.
He said these measures would help to speed up the passport application process.
While urging Nigerians not to bribe any official for passports, Tunji-Ojo said they should reach the Ministry of Interior via 08023753414 and aa_ajiboye@yahoo.com when asked for a bribe at any passport office within the country.
The minister praised officers and men for working day and night including weekends and public holidays to meet with his directive.
According to him, while procurement of visas is a privilege, acquiring international passports is a right.
He also expressed the commitment of President Bola Tinubu to not increase the cost of passport application despite the foreign exchange volatility.
“The Renewed Hope administration of President Bola Tinubu matches its words with actions. The issue of a passport must be a fight and not a privilege. Visa is a privilege but a passport is a right and we are happy that today, we have been able to handle 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 passports already collected is 91,981. Outstanding but available is 112,351.
“We are pleading with Nigerians to please go and collect their passports. Please, do not give money to anybody. 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 aa-ajiboye@yahoo.com
“The attitude of a very negligible fraction of NIS officers will not cast aspersions on the work of the majority of good officers.“
The minister said he has perused all the contracts and agreements the ministry and its agencies had entered into with service providers, saying in the next couple of months, passport applicants would be able to upload their passport photographs via the immigration portal, rather than going to passport offices for such capture.
According to him, applicants would only be required to visit the passport offices for their biometrics enrolment.
“Hopefully by December, people will not need to go to passport offices and they are snapping or taking pictures. This is 2023. People will be able to upload their passport photographs online with specifications. When you apply for a visa, you do that and we are advancing in that line.
Also, your supporting documents should be uploaded online so that when you go to the passport office, but will just be for biometrics and within five minutes you have left there. We don’t want the past situation whereby people spend the whole day at the passport offices. So instead of the offices capturing maybe 400 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.
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.“