Nigerians Rush to Obtain Passports; Immigration Says Issuance Has Risen by 38 per cent
- About one million Nigerians have applied for and obtained passports in one year, according to a new report
- Data gathered from the Nigeria Immigration Service shows that there is a 38 per cent jump in passport issuance by NIS
- Nigerians who are leaving the country are mainly going to the United Kingdom, Canada, the US and India
A recent report says that the number of passports issued by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) increased by 38 per cent between 2020 and 2021.
Passport issuance increased from 767,164 in 2021 to 1,059,697 in 2021.
Source: Getty Images
Almost 3,000 passports issued by NIS every 24 hours
The Punch reports that data from the NIS shows that the passport types range from standard, official, diplomatic, emergency travel certificates or conventional documents.
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Out of those issued in 2020, about 761,825 were standard, 2,024 official, 444 diplomatic, and 2,871 were emergency travel certificates.
It means that almost 3,000 passports were issued by NIS every 24 hours last year.
The United Kingdom immigration showed that 13,609 Nigerian healthcare workers obtained working visas of the passport issued during the period, after India with 42,966 practitioners.
The 2021 Nigerian Cohesion survey 2021 by the African Polling Institute said seven out of every 10 Nigerians were eager to leave the country if given the opportunity.
A World Bank study in 2021 showed that 56,000 more Nigerians were relocating from the country yearly than those arriving.
Top travel destinations by Nigerians
Further investigation shows that 19,000 skilled work and study visas were issued to Nigerians in 2019. In 2021, that number surged to 59,000.
12,595 Nigerians left the country for Canada in 2019 alone, information from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said. That same year, NIS issued 1,198,264 passports, a daily average of 3,282 visas.
The number of Nigerians leaving the country showed a mix of professionals like academics, medical doctors, nurses and tech experts who either resigned from their jobs or prospected overseas travels.
More Nigerians are fleeing the country through the study route, getting study visas mainly in the UK, Canada and the US.
More citizens are also leaving the country through the study route, obtaining study visas mainly in the UK, Canada and the United States.
Nigerian banks witness mass resignation of tech engineers, as they move to Amazon, others
Legit.ng reported that Amazon’s entrance into the e-commerce space in Nigeria has left most Nigerian banks in the lurch, recent findings by Legit.ng reveal.
According to most tech engineers who spoke with Legit.ng, most of them resigned in droves as Amazon announced it is hiring tech-savvy Nigerians to handle its front-end software needs and customer queries.
Samson Ojekwe who spoke with Legit.ng said he resigned from one of the new generation banks after he applied and successfully got recruited to work with Amazon in Ireland.
Source: Legit.ng
