TheCable

The federal government on Tuesday launched the Nigerian Temporary Passport (NTP) for Nigerians in the diaspora.

Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, spearheaded the launch at the headquarters of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) in Abuja.

Aregbesola said the NTP is a new genre of passport that will be issued at Nigerian embassies and high commissions to Nigerians who want to return home but whose national passport is not available.

According to him, the NTP is a travel document designed for a one-way travel to Nigeria only.

He said the new document replaces the Emergency Travel Certificate (ETC) which is issued to Nigerians to return home in emergency situations in the case of loss or misplacement of their passport.

Aregbesola said the temporary passport is ICAO compliant and it is valid for only 30 days before the date of travel.

He added that it does not in any way serve as a replacement for the Nigerian passport

Speaking on the development, Muhammad Babandede, comptroller-general of the NIS, said the ETC posed a huge security threat to Nigeria and the global community because “it was an ordinary paper devoid of necessary security features of a travel document”.

He said the temporary passport is a catalyst to Nigeria’s desire for effective identity management as it has a chip and surface personalisation,”which is an enhancement of the current Electronic Passport Management System (EPMS)”.