Following cries by Nigerians of long wait times for their passports and high charges, the Nigerian Immigration Service says it does not have discriminatory charges on its passports.
It stated that two Passport regimes are running concurrently – the electronic Passport and enhanced electronic Passport, stating the latter is an improvement on the older models.
This was disclosed in a social media statement by Comptroller General Isah Jere Idris, on Thursday.
What immigration service is saying
Nigerian Immigration Service said its attention had been drawn to some stories about discriminatory Passport charges for Passport applicants in the North and South of the country.
It stated, “The Passports we issue are for Nigerians irrespective of where they live including those in the diaspora. What we do have are two Passport regimes that are running concurrently. They are the electronic Passport and enhanced electronic Passport.
“The latter is an improvement of the former. It is a product of the latest technology in Passport issuance. It has improved security features, a polycarbonate data page and comes in three categories of 32-page five-year validity (N25,000), 64-page five-year (N35000) and 64-page ten-year validity (N70000).
“It was unveiled sometime in 2019 & seven Passport Centres including Ikoyi, Abuja, Alausa, FESTAC, Port Harcourt. Kano & Gwagwalada were immediately migrated to the enhanced Passport regime then.”
The NIS added that the electronic Passport is the usual one we have been issuing since the introduction of ePassport in 2007. The fee chargeable ranges from N8750-N17800 depending on age of the applicant and category of Passport.
“At the moment, the Service is steadily migrating all its Passport Centres to the enhanced ePassport regime.
“To this effect, all the Centres in South-South, South-West & South-East including our Desks in the UK & USA have been fully migrated to the enhanced regime. In the work plan, Centres in the North-West, North-East, Canada & others are getting ready for migration to the enhanced Passport regime very soon,” it added.
WE DON'T HAVE ANY DISCRIMINATORY PASSPORT CHARGES
The attention of the Comptroller General Isah Jere Idris has been drawn to some stories about discriminatory Passport charges for Passport applicants in the North and South of the country.The report is not only laughable— Nigeria Immigration Service (@nigimmigration) September 1, 2022
In case you missed it
- Nairametrics recently reported that longer processing time for international passports by the Nigerian Immigration Service has stalled the plans of many Nigerians who seek to jump on the #japa trend, in search of greener pastures. This has caused some people to cut corners in order to get their passports faster, which in many cases yielded no positives.
