TheCable

The federal government has approved the reduction of fees for marriage licences across the country.

Mohammed Manga, director of press and public relations of the ministry of interior, disclosed this in a statement, on Monday.

According to Manga, Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, announced the decision in a public notice signed by Georgina Ehuriah, the ministry’s permanent secretary and principal registrar of marriages in Nigeria.

Aregbesola said the decision is based on recommendations made by stakeholders at the sensitisation conferences held across the country in the third quarter of 2019.

While the approval was granted for statutory marriage services under the marriage act CAP M6 LFN 2004, the implementation will commence from July 1.

For the issuance of fresh marriage certificate, the fee has been slashed from N30,000 for two years to N6,000 yearly, payable for five years in the first instance, while the fee for renewal of marriage licence by a place of public worship has been reduced from N30,000 to N5,000, signifying 83 percent reduction.

“For the Renewal of Marriage Licence by a Place of Public Worship, the sum of N5,000 has been approved per year, payable for three years at each instance, as against the N30,000 earlier charged annually,” the statement read.

“The fees chargeable for Statutory Ordinary Marriage has also been cut down from N21,000 to N15,000 while that of Statutory Special Licence has been slashed from N35,000 to N25,000”.

Aregbesola called on stakeholders in  places of worship to get the needed licence, and urged members of the public to utilise the opportunity of the reduction in fees.