The Federal Government has revealed that passport booklets are now easily available to Nigerians.
This was revealed by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola at the commissioning of the Passport Production Centre in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Tuesday.
Aregbesola said that the FG has sent sufficient booklets to all centers nationwide to address the issue of passport shortages.
“We have left no stone unturned in our quest to make passports available to Nigerians.
“Last year alone, we provided 1.3 million passports to Nigerians. As of today, there is no booklet shortage in Nigeria.
“As of the second quarter of this year (in June), the NIS has provided 645,000 passports out of the 750,000 applications received.
“To address the challenge of the backlog, we have sent 11,000 booklets to Ikoyi, 11,000 to Alausa and 8,000 to FESTAC centers in Lagos.
“We have also sent sufficient booklets to all the centres nationwide to address this challenge.
In his statement, the Minister added that “there must be no excuse again for delay and non-issuance within a reasonable period.”
“I will urge applicants for the Nigerian passport to apply early enough before their travel date to avoid cutting corners and falling into the hands of scammers and other opportunists.
“It is important also that they apply by themselves at the Nigeria Immigration Service portal and not through touts and unscrupulous officials, which often bring heartaches.
He said the government has provided a reasonable timeline for both fresh application and renewal that will enable the NIS to investigate and validate applicants’ claims on the passport issued.
“We have provided a window of six weeks and three weeks for fresh application and renewal respectively, after biometric data capture, by which time, other things being equal, the passport will be ready for collection.
“This timeline is to enable NIS to investigate and validate the claims of applicants and confer integrity on the passport issued.
“It is a reasonable provision in passport administration by the global standard. There is no wait-and-get passport service anywhere in the world. The only wait-and-get passport is a passport-sized photograph from a Polaroid camera,” Aregbesola said.
