The minister of interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has promised that going forward, Nigerians would not have to wait for the usually long periods to get their passports.
According to him, once someone applies for a passport and gets captured, he should expect to pick it up within two weeks.
This comes barely a month after the minister directed the Nigerian Immigration Service to clear all passport backlogs. He said it was part of the efforts to clear all the bottlenecks in passport processing in the country.
Speaking to pressmen on Wednesday in Abuja, the minister said: “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.”
Tunji-Ojo said the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) had cleared all the 204,332 passport application backlogs.
He noted: “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.”
Pledging that the NIS would reinforce its system to improve its services, the minister disclosed 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 said the measures would help to speed up the passport application process.
The minister also told Nigerians to reach his ministry through 08023753414 and aa_ajiboye@yahoo.com to report officers who ask for bribes to process their passports.
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