The Nigerian government said it is in talks with the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) to commence mail delivery of passports to Nigerians, as part of efforts to effect swift service.
The move was disclosed by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, who spoke at the opening of the Nigeria Immigration Service Passport Front Desk Office in Auchi, Edo State, on Saturday, 20th May 2023.
“We are in the final stage of concluding negotiations with NIPOST to begin using its speed mail service to deliver passports to Nigerians wherever they are in the world after production,” the Minister disclosed.
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Passport delivery in Nigeria is among the poorest globally, and has pitted applicants against the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) for years.
A statement by Sola Fasure, Media Adviser to the Minister, the launch of an additional Passport Front Office in Auchi, Edo State, was part of the government’s effort towards effective service delivery to Nigerians.
He quoted Aregbesola as saying that it was the intention of the government to provide the passport to anyone desirous of it within a reasonable time, at an affordable price and without any stress.
However, Aregbesola, while stating that Edo State has one of the highest passport applications in Nigeria, revealed that the waiting period between application and collection would likely increase due to the recent increase in demand.
“Our current working schedule is that fresh application would take six weeks after biometric data registration and three weeks for renewal. This is reasonable, competitive and in line the global best practices,” he said.
“The challenge, however, is the waiting period at the point of application and data registration.
“All applicants will be put in a queue, depending on the centre of their choice, to determine the registration date. Regrettably, it might take two months in some highly competitive centers where the application is very high. We have no control over this.”
He further said that the federal government was intentional about opening more front desk offices, in order to increase the registration centers and reduce the waiting period before biometric data capture.
In the past few years, Nigerians had had to spend several months on the waitlist of the Nigerian Immigration Service for their passport delivery. In 2021, Aregbesola announced new rules geared toward making passport processing and issuance seamless and faster as backlash grew over the lackluster nature of the NIS. The rules included creating special centers, which will run on a public-private partnership basis, for expedited services.
“Our goal is to have one in each local government area, university campuses, institutions of higher learning and other relevant public places,” he said then.
Edo State is said to rank fifth amongst states with the highest volume of passport applications locally.
“In the past 365 days, Edo State has processed 56,291 applications out of the 1.5 million passports produced in Nigeria. The commissioning of this front office will no doubt go a long way in reducing the traffic in Edo State and other neighboring States,” the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Isah Jere Idris, said.
This year alone, the Minister of Interior had been in Daura in Katsina State, Alimosho in Lagos, Ilesa in Osun, Zaria in Kaduna and Oyo in Oyo State to commission Passport Front Desk Offices.
The government’s move to incorporate mail delivery into the recent changes made to fasten passport service is expected to boost other measures, which are believed to have increased the pace of passport issuance nationwide.