"Collect Your Passport": Applicants to Receive Documents in Just Two Weeks
- FG has said it is working to ensure that Nigeria's passport processing time does not exceed two weeks
- The Interior Minister said Nigerians have already collected 91,981 passports
- According to him, a visa is a privilege, while a passport for another country is a right.
The federal government announced that the days of waiting for months to process a passport application are over. It stated that it had established a two-week deadline for passport processing.
Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo provided this information on Wednesday in Abuja.
He made the statement during a review of his order to the Nigeria Immigration Service to process the over 204,000 backlog of passport applications.
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Passport ready in two weeks
Tunji-Ojo said that the ministry is working to ensure that nobody waits for more than two weeks to get their passports.
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He noted:
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.
The minister cautioned Nigerians asking for passports not to offer money to anyone.
He directed applicants to lodge their complaints via 0802 375 3414, preferably through SMS and WhatsApp.
He also asked applicants denied their passport after capturing to mail a mail to aa-ajiboye@yahoo.com.
A passport is a right.
He contends that while getting a visa is a privilege, getting a passport for another country is a right.
Despite the volatility of the foreign exchange market, he said President Bola Tinubu has resolved not to raise the cost of applying for a passport.
In addition, the minister stated that he had reviewed all of the contracts and agreements that the ministry and its agencies had made with service providers.
He added that in the coming months, passport applicants can upload their passport photos via the immigration portal rather than visiting passport offices for such capture.
He claimed that applicants would only need to go to the passport offices to enrol in biometrics.
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.
He added that supporting documents should be uploaded online so applicants will only go to the passport office for biometrics and leave within five minutes.
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.
He said the innovation is ongoing without an increase in passport fees despite the exchange rate problems in the country.
Recall that a recently released quarterly Henley Passport Index ranked Nigeria bottom among countries with one of the 20 worst passports to hold in 2023.
Japa: Immigration Lists Causes of Passport Delays as Nigerian Passport Ranks Low Globally
Legit.ng reported that the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has caused a delay in the processing and issuing of some international passports to Nigerian applicants due to inconsistencies in identification, such as National Identification Numbers (NINs).
At the 60th anniversary celebration of the agency in the state, Sunday James, the controller of the service in Rivers State, informed the audience in Port Harcourt.
This is coming amid a report by Legit. ng that the Nigerian passport's global ranking has moved up ten places but is still among the worst in the world. Read more on how to get an international passport in Nigeria.
Source: Legit.ng
