The Federal Government has announced a two-week timeline for the processing of passport applications, saying the era of Nigerians waiting for months to get their international passports is over.
This was disclosed by the Interior Minister, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo on Wednesday in Abuja at a media parley to review his directive to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to clear over two hundred and four thousand backlog of passport applications.
The minister who apologized profusely to Nigerians that clearance of the backlog had spilled into three weeks as opposed to the two weeks deadline given, however praised officers and men of the ministry 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 and he also expressed the commitment of President Bola Tinubu not to increase the cost of passport application in spite of the foreign exchange volatility.
“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 passports photographs online with specifications. When you apply for 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”.
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