Immigration blames CBN forex policy for inability to meet huge demand
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Insufficient passport booklets to meet huge demand has been blamed on the foreign exchange (forex) policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
The NIS also cited Nigeria’s inability to establish local passport-producing factories as another clog in the wheel of quick delivery of passports.
NIS Comptroller General Idris Jere made the disclosures at a public hearing organised by an ad hoc Committee of the House of Representatives in Abuja.
He spoke less than a week after Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola said the NIS has never experienced a scarcity of passport booklets, insisting it is “a lie and an excuse by a few corrupt officials of the service to extort the applicants.”
Jere explained the refusal of the CBN to grant access to forex for the importation of passport booklets is causing scarcity as well as delay in the process of passport issuance.
“We generate forex from the sale of passports, but we do not have access to buy the same booklets, and that is a challenge for NIS,” he said.
“The factors responsible for the scarcity of passports include the inability to set up passport-producing factories in Nigeria as its production is done abroad.
“The major seven components used for producing passports are sold in the international market, and the assemblage and production are done in Malaysia.”
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NSPM to produce passports locally
Jere confirmed Irris Smart Technology, the foreign company producing passports, has done well given the conditions, via reporting by The Guardian.
He added the presidential directive to commence the production of passports locally by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting (NSPM) is a welcome development.
But he recommended a proper exit plan be put in place for a smooth handover from Irris Smart Tech to prevent any breach of contract or production process.
Irris Smart Technology Managing Director Yinker Fisher argued that before the advent of the e-passport system, the Nigerian passport was marred by embarrassing irregularities and inconsistencies under the watch of the NSPM.
According to him, because of a lack of capacity, the NSPM outsourced the process to three companies, which led to so many irregularities, including passport colour and numbers.
Corruption factor
Aregbesola disclosed last week efforts by the NIS to sanitise the passport process are being sabotaged by a “few” corrupt officials.
“One of the challenges facing NIS as regards passport applications are the few corrupt officials of the service who are undermining the efforts of the service at sanitising the process and bringing integrity to passport applications,” he said.
“These unscrupulous people are making the situation difficult by the day; if people do not tolerate them, they will not exist again. They are the ones spreading the rumor that there are no booklets in order to continue to extort the applicants.
“We did not have a shortage of booklets at any given time; we have enough booklets to meet the needs of the people. There are more than enough booklets in our production schedule.”
Aregbesola urged passport applicants to stop patronising touts and to report NIS officials manipulating applicants to collect bribe.
