TheCable

The federal government, on Monday, unveiled an e-passport production centre in Oyo state as part of efforts to facilitate the application process.

In his address at the launch of the centre on Monday, Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, said the new development will help to ease the stress of passport application and renewal.

He said all procedures in obtaining the Nigerian passport have been digitalised, adding that Nigerians should desist from patronising unauthorised persons in the quest to hasten the application process.

“Part of the reforms is the migration of passport application and payments to digital platforms. But we regret to observe that applicants still patronise touts and unscrupulous officials in the hope to beat the system and get expedited services,” he said.

“When they are disappointed, they come to report to us. Of course, we have zero tolerance for corruption and subversion of due process. We, therefore, take seriously any such report and invoke the necessary disciplinary measures.

“But I will implore applicants to stop patronising touts and our officials directly. Follow the process we put in place. Apply for passports and pay online.

“The only engagement with our staff is the enrolment of your biometrics. Patronising touts and passport office officials doesn’t always end well, but rather serves to defeat our purpose of eliminating corruption and infusing integrity to the passport administration process.”

Speaking on the timeline for the application process, the minister said fresh passports will take six weeks, while renewal is three weeks.

“Our template stipulates a maximum of six weeks for obtaining new passports and maximum of three weeks for renewal,” he said.

“We work within this schedule to enable us investigate claims made by applicants and verify them, for the final document we issue them to have integrity.

“If there are challenges, wait. Eventually, you will get your passport before your due date of travel if you apply early enough. You will still a have long enough time to apply for visa and other travel documents.

“Nowhere in the world is passport administration done on wait-and-get basis except in extreme emergencies. The only wait-and-get passport is passport photograph.

“The enhanced e-passport is a great improvement on the biometric passport technology which Nigeria adopted in 2007, as a deliberate step towards curbing forgery, impersonation and other forms of travel document fraud associated with the old machine-readable passport regime. 

“It is the latest technology in passport making anywhere in the world and only a few countries have it. It is the most secure identity document ever produced. We are proud to make it available to Nigerians.”

On his part, Isah Jere, the acting comptroller-general of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), also advised against patronising unauthorised persons for passport applications.

“As you have heard from the minister, we expect that the only time citizens will have contact with our officers is during the biometric capturing. You are to apply and pay only,” he said.

“Soon, we are launching an appointment management system and a tracking system for you to know anywhere you are in the world, the process of your passport application.”