By Omodele Adigun
Federal Government, on Thursday, assured Nigerians that passports will soon be issued seven days after filing application for the travel document.
Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who gave this assurance, said this is now possible following the upgrading of the facilities at the Nigeria Immigration Service.
The Minister, who disclosed this after inspecting the newly completed Data Personalisation Centre at the Headquarters, Abuja, described it as a “game-changer” in the nation’s passport production system.
According to him, the centre will reduce response time as passports could be printed within 24 hours and delivered within a week.
Tunji-Ojo revealed that while the old machines could only process 250–300 passports per machine daily, the new facility now produces about 1,000 passports per hour, giving the NIS the capacity to deliver between 4,500 and 5,000 passports within a normal workday.
“This means applicants whose requests are approved can now expect their passports to be printed within 24 hours,” he added.
The Minister said the centre marks the first time since the establishment of the NIS in 1963 that Nigeria will operate a world-class centralised passport personalisation facility, comparable to those in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, India, and Bangladesh.
He added that the new system puts an end to the previous arrangement where passports were personalised in about 96 centres across Nigeria and abroad — a model he described as “vulnerable and inefficient.”
The Minister further recalled that the government inherited a backlog of over 200,000 passport applications but stressed that the new system eliminates such challenges by automating personalisation and reducing human intervention.
“This project ensures that the era of backlogs is over. Officers no longer have to work around the clock to clear piles of applications. The system is now seamless, fast, and accountable,” he said.
