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Nigeria has commissioned a new passport issuing facility that would offer the 10-year validity passport to Nigerians.
Rauf Aregbesola, Nigeria’s Minister of Interior commissioned the facility on Tuesday at the Nigerian High Commission in London.
Amos Okpu, Assistant Comptroller of Immigration Service in charge of Public Relations, said in a statement that the facility, eligible applicants can now have access to a variety of options available on the enhanced e-Passport categories.
Okpu stated that the options include: the five-year, 32-page Passport category; the five-year, 64-page category and the 10- year, 64-page category.
Aregbesola was quoted in the statement as saying that the enhanced e-Passport was a great improvement of the standard e-Passport introduced in 2007.
He noted that the enhanced e-Passport has more sophisticated security features making it one of the most secured Passports in the world.
According to him, the enhanced e-Passport “comes in polycarbonate data page and with this, Nigeria is at the highest level of Passport security and integrity in the world”.
He assured of government’s readiness to continue to provide Passports to eligible applicants without stress and within a reasonable period noting that efforts are being made to resolve all the problems associated with Passport administration and issuance across all Centres.
The Minister revealed that the Nigeria Immigration Service has issued a total of 2.7 million Passports to Nigerians in the past two years including the deployment of over 600,000 booklets, this year alone to address rising demand for the document.
He thanked the officials of the High Commission for their commitment to quality service delivery and urged for a deepened engagement with the diaspora population.
In his remarks, the acting Comptroller General of Immigration Service, Isah Idris, affirmed the commitment of the Service to meet the rising demands for Passport services in London and advised prospective applicants to visit the Service’s official website (immigration.gov.ng) to apply and pay for the Passport category of their choice.
He enjoined those who have any complaints, to use available complaints channels to resolve any issues assuring that his officers are professionals and would continue to deliver excellent services to our citizens.
