Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior has commissioned a Passport Front Office and Production Centre in Ilesa, Osun State, South-West Nigeria.
At the Commissioning, the Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola promised that the problem with the surge in the application for Nigerian passport would be solved through improved service delivery and streamlining of its operations.
#NISDeyForYou 🫶
NIS don dey Ilesa 🤎Thank you Osun 🫡 https://t.co/WfBRFPIpjT
— Nigeria Immigration Service (@nigimmigration) March 28, 2023
He said the surge necessitates the establishment of more passport front offices across the country, which is born out of the determination of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to further make the process seamless.
“One of the burdens we bear every day is of desperate travellers who needed a passport today to be able to travel tomorrow. Except for medical emergencies and overriding national interests, there is hardly any emergency in travelling. This is because travelling, whether for studies, business or pleasure requires planning and it takes time.
“The reforms we have introduced to passport administration are meant to ease operation and confer integrity on the Nigerian passport. We are also linking passports with other identity platforms, in line with the national policy of creating a central identity database, for ease of national administration and national security. This is why NIN is linked with passport applications. Any discrepancy will stall their application for a passport until they are able to resolve it.”
The Minister urged applicants for the Nigerian passport to apply early enough before their travel date to avoid cutting corners and falling into the hands of fraudulent people.
He advised applicants to ensure they apply by themselves at the Nigeria Immigration Service portal and not through touts and unscrupulous officials, which often bring heartaches.
Aregbesola explained that while the front desk is neither an express centre, nor a full-fledged passport office like the ones in Osogbo, Ibadan or Akure; it remains a front office where applications will be made and biometric data of the applicant collected.
“It is a non-judgemental centre, meaning that no decision will be made here, but the application and biometric data of the applicants will be collected and forwarded to the Nigeria Immigration Service for processing and issuing.
“We need as many centres as possible to accommodate the huge number of those applying every day, day and night, on our online platform, to reduce the waiting time before data capture to the barest minimum. Our target is to reduce the waiting period for biometric data capture to not more than one week, after application.”
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