The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) is encouraging Nigerians who have applied for International Passports but have not yet collected them to visit the passport offices for collection, as the backlog has been cleared.
Dotun Aridegbe, a Deputy Comptroller of Immigration and the Immigration spokesman shared this information during an exclusive conversation with The Guardian. He emphasized, “The days of passports backlog are now over.”
Minister’s directive
Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior, had issued a directive to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to clear the backlog of over 200,000 pending passport applications within two weeks.
This directive was given during a meeting between the minister and the Acting Comptroller-General of NIS, Caroline Adepoju, shortly after she assumed office in Abuja.
The meeting was also attended by Mr. Yinka Fisher, the Managing Director of Iris Smart Technologies, the firm responsible for producing Nigerian passport booklets.
The minister’s order was in line with his commitment to eliminating all obstacles in the process of obtaining Nigerian passports and other immigration documents.
To fulfil the minister’s directive, the Acting Comptroller General (CG) of Immigration, Mrs. Carol Adepoju Wura-Ola, activated a full-scale implementation team within the NIS hierarchy, which achieved remarkable success.
Call on applicants to collect their passports
Aridegbe urged,
- “Please help us tell applicants whose passports are lying in various passport offices across the country to go and collect their passports. We are working around the clock to ensure the satisfaction of our applicants.”
Backstory
In August, the Minister of Interior upon assumption of office charged the Nigeria Immigration Service to ensure the over 200,000 passport production backlog is cleared within two weeks.
The Minister said during an interview that a “passport is a right, not a privilege”.
He also promised to remove all the bottlenecks involved in passport production and issuance to both Nigerians living in Nigeria and abroad.
If indeed over 200,000 passport booklets have been cleared within 2 – 3 weeks, then one wonders why the NIS is given new enrolees over 2 months before they can collect their passports after biometrics capture.. Wouldn’t this lead to another set of backlogs in the near future?. I enrolled on September 25 and collection is fixed for December 18, 2023. It shall be well with Nigeria.
Cheers