The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced that passports will now be delivered within one week of enrolment, following sweeping reforms in the issuance process.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this during the ministry’s mid-tenure performance retreat on Thursday in Abuja.
“Our target is very clear: within one week of enrolment, every Nigerian should have their passport in hand. Not just delivering quickly, but delivering quality passports that reflect our integrity as a nation,” the minister said.
He also emphasised the government’s commitment to efficiency and national integrity.
According to Tunji-Ojo, “The new system is designed to eliminate long delays and extortion that once forced citizens to wait six to seven months or pay as much as N200,000 to fast-track processing.
“The system that we inherited, which had six months of backlog, which we were able to clear in two and a half weeks, that system that was inefficient, Nigerians will apply for a passport, it will take six to seven months to get it, a system that, for a passport, you need to pay N200,000 to N250,000, that system we inherited was inefficient.
“My own daughter had that bad experience. Even when I was chairman of the House Committee on the NDDC, my daughter wanted a passport, but it was a problem.
”I had to pay hundreds of thousands to be able to get a passport for my daughter, a 12-year-old girl. That era is over,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He also noted that the centralised personalisation centre, the largest in Africa, would ensure faster processing and stricter security.
The minister fuether explained that the new facility would enable the government to print five times more passports than currently needed, reducing processing time to within 24 hours after enrolment.
“With this facility, we can print five times more passports than we currently need. Once you enrol, it doesn’t take us more than 24 hours to vet. Printing capacity is no longer our problem,” he said.
He also announced that passport control officers would no longer have the power to approve or delay passport applications, following revelations that some of them were at the centre of corruption and inefficiency in the system.
Tunji-Ojo emphasised that the reform was aimed at curbing racketeering, eliminating delays, and restoring integrity to Nigeria’s travel documents.
He added that the centralising of the approval process would ensure that passport applicants were no longer at the mercy of individual officers.
The minister cited past cases where foreigners bought Nigerian passports illegally, stressing that new vetting and approval processes would restore integrity to the system.
He assured Nigerians that the reforms would deliver quality passports within a week, reflecting the country’s integrity.
