Nigerians can now get international passport issued in 24 hours, the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said.
Speaking at the launch of a new automated fast passport-processing centre at the Maitama Passport Express Centre (MPEC) in Abuja, Aregbesola said it was the vision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Nigeria Immigration Services to build such centre in every local government of the country.
He said the new automated fast passport-processing centre was aimed at eradicating the challenges Nigerians faced in the administration of passport in the country.
He noted that the Maitama Passport Express Centre (MPEC) in Abuja which was established in partnership with IRIS Smart Technology was to run on premium service delivery to Nigerians who desired to obtain passport within 24 hours after successful applications.
Aregbesola said during the inauguration that the establishment of the passport-processing centre was in concordance with the Executive Order 1 signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2017 designed to aid ease of doing business in Nigeria and as well in response to the yearning of Nigerians to ease the stress of passport processing and administration in Nigeria.
The minister noted that the new centre was designed towards eliminating any form of corrupt practices in the issuance of passports and minimise human contact arising from COVID-19 pandemic safety protocol, adding that it was in the vision of the Ministry and Immigration Services to build such centre in every local government to suit the necessity of passport applications in the various regions of Nigeria.
In his remarks, the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Services, Muhammad Babandede said the centre, which is run by a private firm, would charge N20,000 for normal applicant willing to collect the booklet in three days or N30,000 for 24-hour service.
He noted that the price for the traditional passport issuance at the Immigration centers remained the same.
He announced that the entire staff members of Amana Passport Office had been posted out for negligence, complicity in passport administration with many officers having been dismissed, de-ranked and others facing disciplinary procedures for corrupt practices and loss of passport booklets.
On the Maitama Centre, Babandede said: “The centre will be non-judgmental and has provision for large comfortable VIP lounge, refreshment, queue management system and other necessary facilities to ensure comfort and speedy delivery of quality service.”
He added: “This Centre will have a dedicated National Identity Number (NIN) registration unit and cater to the complete passport issuance process from enrolment to production for only Fresh and Re-issue passport applications.”
He said other categories of passport applications including Change of Data, Replacement of Damaged, Lost/Stolen passport, among others “shall continue to be processed at the Service Headquarters and other approved passport issuing authorities.:
He said: “We acknowledge and apologize for the challenges faced in the past few weeks regarding passport booklets availability. I am glad to inform you that
booklets are now available and are being distributed to all our passport issuing centres. We therefore appeal for little more patience from passport applicants to enable the passport offices clear the pending backlog.” (theconclaveng)
