According to the federal government, there are currently more passport booklets available than necessary to alleviate the country’s ongoing passport issue delays.
The revelation was made by Rauf Aregbesola, the interior minister, on Tuesday at the launching of the upgraded passport production facility in Port Harcourt, the capital of the Rivers.
The newly established center, according to the minister, will be in charge of creating passports for citizens of the states of Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, and Bayelsa.
The federal government had stated in January that the delay in issuing passports to Nigerians was due to a shortfall of booklets, adding that the backlog will end by March 2022.
However, even after March, there were rumors that passport booklets were still scarce nationwide.
Aregbesola claimed such was no longer the case when discussing the situation with the passport booklet shortage.
“Last year alone, we provided 1.3 million passports to Nigerians. As of today, there is no booklet shortage in Nigeria,” the minister said.
“As at the second quarter of this year (in June), the NIS had provided 645,000 passports out of the 750,000 applications received.
“To address backlog challenge, we have sent 11,000 booklets to Ikoyi, 11,000 to Alausa, and 8,000 to FESTAC centres in Lagos.
“We have also sent sufficient booklets to all the centres nationwide. There is therefore no excuse again for delay and non-issuance within a reasonable period.
“We have provided a window of six weeks and three weeks for fresh application and renewal respectively, after biometric data capture, by which, other things being equal, the passport will be ready for collection. This timeline is to enable NIS investigate and validate the claims of applicants and confer integrity on the passport issued.
“It is a reasonable provision in passport administration by global standard. There is no wait-and-get passport service anywhere in the world. The only wait-and-get passport is passport-sized photograph from Polaroid camera.”
Aregbesola urged Nigerians to submit their passport applications immediately through the Nigeria Immigration Service’s website (NIS).
“I, therefore, once again implore applicants to apply directly through the NIS portal and avoid touts and NIS officials, not offer bribes to anyone, or pay more than the stipulated fees,” he said.
“Those patronising touts and corrupt officials are sabotaging our efforts and making sanitisation difficult.”
