Isa Idris, acting comptroller-general of the Nigeria
Immigration Service (NIS), says the delay in passport processing as a result of
booklet scarcity will be over by March.
Speaking on Saturday during a media interaction, he blamed
the challenge of delayed passport production on the coronavirus pandemic and
the accompanying global lockdown, and also the difficulty in accessing foreign
exchange in the country.
According to him, part of efforts put in place to address
the delay is the launch of the enhanced e-passport, which he noted has improved
features.
“Just Friday, we received a total of 45,000 booklets towards clearing the backlog and in December alone, we received more than 100,000 booklets which we have continued to distribute across the passport centres nationwide. This is not just for Nigerians in Nigeria alone but for those in the Diaspora as well,” Idris said
“But with the
introduction of the enhanced e-passport, we are good to go in our efforts
towards addressing the scarcity. This enhanced e-passport is a great
improvement on the biometric passport technology which we adopted as a country
in 2007.
“It is a strategic step towards curbing forgery,
impersonation and other forms of fraud associated with obtaining travel
documents under the old machine readable passport regime.
“And because we know that technology helps to address some
of our challenges, including corruption, we have continued to try to stop
personal contacts with our officials. My predecessor started to break the jinx
and we are continuing on that. We plead with applicants to apply only online
and stop physical contacts with our officers to avert corrupt practices.”
Idris also cautioned the public to avoid last-minute
applications.
“Next week, more booklets will be received towards clearing
the backlog. Stop engaging in last-minute application rush for either renewal
or fresh application for international passports. Applicants for renewal can
apply for it six months to the expiration of their passports,” he said.
“The service is working hard to ensure full compliance with
the three-week duration for renewal and six-week waiting period for fresh
applications.
“The waiting period is for us to validate the addresses
provided by the applicants. So, Nigerians should not forget that they have six
months to renew their passports. They should not wait till it expires, and of
course, if there are other emergencies, and there is a window for them.”
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