By Palma Ileye
Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has assured that applicants would get their passports seamlessly saying that henceforth, no Nigerian will have to wait for more than two weeks to get an international passport.
Tunji-Ojo stated this yesterday during a Press conference held at the Ministry’s Headquarters in Abuja to update Nigerians on the state of passport backlog in the country.
He disclosed that the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, has cleared all 204,332 passport application backlog within the given period.
“No one will ever wait for two weeks to get passports again. If you apply and have been captured, you will get your passport within two weeks,” the Interior Minister assured.
Recall that on September 7th, 2023, the Minister had given a two-week deadline to the NIS to clear all passport application backlogs.
He said, “Immigration service did three shifts to make sure that we clear the backlogs and to ensure that never again in the history of Nigeria, are we going to have a backlog. This is not a temporary relief but a permanent solution.”
The Minister said NIS and its partners would upgrade their systems in order to improve their services, adding that applicants would not be required to go to passport offices to be captured from December 2023.
“People will be able to upload their passport and supporting documents online. Only biometrics will be taken at the passport office.
“We are introducing passport front offices where people can go and process their passport close to where they reside. Solution providers have been given three months to activate this or their contract will be revoked,” he stated.
These measures he added would help to speed up the passport application process.
He urged Nigerians not to bribe any official for passports saying that they should reach the Ministry of Interior via 08023753414 and aa_ajiboye@yahoo.com when asked for a bribe at any passport office within the country.