BY Ebunoluwa Olafusi
Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, on Tuesday, inaugurated the enhanced e-passport production centre in Benin, Edo state capital.
In 2021, the federal government launched the enhanced e-passport to address issues of forgery and improve the application process.
According to a statement by Amos OKPU, public relations officer of the assistant comptroller of immigration, the centre is to take care of the production of passports for Edo and Delta states passport offices.
Speaking at the event, Aregbesola said the centre was specially designated for the passport offices in the two states because of the increasing volume of applications from the states in recent times.
He said with the inauguration of the facility, the two states have joined other locations in the south-east and south-west that have been successfully migrated to the enhanced e-passport platform.
The minister said the enhanced e-passport offers sufficient options to applicants to choose from the 32-page five-year; 64-page five-year and 64-page 10-year validity passport categories.
He said the enhanced e-passport is a product of improved technology that features a polycarbonate data page which would make the document difficult to forge.
He asked prospective applicants to avoid patronising middlemen while applying for passport because the process has been digitised to allow for the use of simple devices to apply.
On his part, Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, expressed appreciation for the choice of Benin as the centre for the facility and pledged his government’s support to the service.
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