Tunji-Ojo added that the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) can now deliver 4000-5000 passports in five hours.
By Kehinde Okeowo
Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has said the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has finally ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
He disclosed this in a statement on Thursday after inspecting the newly built Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
According to the minister, the immigration service can now deliver 4000-5000 passports in five hours.
Tunji-Ojo added that with the infrastructure, NIS can personalise over 1,000 passports in one hour, up from 250–300 passports daily.
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He also noted that prior to this, the NIS which was established in 1963, had never operated a central passport production centre.
He said, “This morning (Thursday), alongside the Permanent Secretary, Dr Magdalene Ajani, and the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Kemi Nanna Nandap, I inspected the newly built Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS headquarters in Abuja.
“With these strategic infrastructural investments, which did not cost a kobo to the government, the NIS can now personalise over 1,000 passports in one hour.
“To put it into perspective, long before this development, the service could only record an average of 250–300 passports daily. But, today, under 5 work hours, the service can now deliver about 4500 to 5000 passports.
“As a major milestone, for the first time in 62 years of the service, this centralisation puts an end to the production of our passports at multiple centres across the world.”
