Aregbesola Warns Immigration to ‘Treat Passport Applicants as Customers’
- Good news awaits passport applicants as the federal government approved a new technological device to ease the application process
- The latest development reveals that a fresh application for a passport will not exceed six weeks, while the renewal of a passport is pegged at three weeks
- Meanwhile, immigration officers have been warned to do away with any form of sharp practices and be diligent in discharging their duties
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FCT, Abuja - The minister of interior, Rauf Aregbesola has warned immigration officers to always treat passport applicants as customers at all times, PUNCH newspaper reports.
Aregbesola made this known in Abuja on Tuesday, April 12 during a two-day sensitization program for passport protocol officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).
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While speaking at the workshop, the former Osun state governor, stated that will introduce tracking and monitoring of passport applications in other to reduce complaints about the collection of passports.
He revealed that the process will commence next month in other to ease applicants the stress of monitoring their application stages.
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He said:
“You will not have the hassle of people coming. Just go online with your reference number to check and it will state whether you are having a NIN problem.
“It will tell you the status of your application. It will tell you whether your passport is ready and you can pick it. This will be a month from now by the Grace of God.”
Passport collection: FG approves deployment of gadget for new innovation
He further revealed that all has been put in place to commence the exercise stating that President Muhammadu Buhari has given approval for the deployment of new technology that will aid the process.
He said:
“Very soon, you will not see any passport applicants. Very soon there will be no files. Technology has provided so much succour for whoever wants to be efficient.
However, Aregbesola mandated and expressly stated that the time frame for the collection of fresh passports should not exceed six weeks, while renewal was pegged at three weeks.
List of 26 countries Nigerians can travel to without a visa
In another development, the 2021 global passport index for 2021 revealed that Nigerians can now travel to 21 countries without visas.
These countries include Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde Island, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau.
Others are Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo respectively.
List of 70 countries UAE approves for visa-on-arrival
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates has approved visa-on-arrival for passport holders from at least 70 countries across the world.
Legit.ng notes that the list of the eligible countries for the visa-on-arrival policy is available on the official website of Etihad Airlines.
A statement on the airline's website stated that anyone from the listed countries does not need to apply for a visa before travelling to the UAE. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and the continent's biggest economy, is absent from the list.
Source: Legit.ng
