The milestone is sequel to the directive by the Comptroller
General of Immigration, Isa Jere Idris, to Passport Offices and Diaspora desks
at international airports to open on Saturdays to clear applications backlog.
Under a special arrangement to ramp up passport production,
Passport Offices from December 3, 2022 to January 28, 2023, open between 10am
to 2pm to speed up passport production in furtherance of steps by the Federal
Ministry of Interior and NIS to clear the backlog of applications for the
issuance of the enhanced Nigerian international e-Passports.
The special weekend service for instance saw the flagship
Ikoyi Passport Office processed 800 booklets last Saturday alone, while other
Passport Offices across the country have also delivered appreciable numbers of
booklets.
Public Relations Officer of the NIS, Anthony Akuneme, said
in addition to the Saturday operation at the Passport Offices, the CGI also
approved the deployment of passport controllers to Ondo and Ekiti states to
enhance service delivery to clients in those states.
While clarifying that the Passport Offices would not open
only on the Saturdays preceding the Christmas and New Year holidays, he
reiterated that the Federal Government was committed to doing everything
possible to make passport services available and stress-free to the travelling
public, especially during the festive season.
Meanwhile, the Service has expressed displeasure that many
applicants whose passports have been processed have not been collecting them,
noting that there are over 30,000 passports nationwide that have not been
collected by applicants.
Akuneme, therefore, appealed to the concerned applicants to
proceed to the passport offices which they indicated in their application forms
and did their biometrics capturing to go and pick up their passports, without
any further delay.
He also urged passport applicants to always provide their
correct details including active telephone numbers and email addresses as these
will make it easy for the Immigration Service to reach them whenever the need
arises.
‘‘The failure of some applicants to supply functional
telephone numbers and email addresses in their applications poses a challenge
for our officers to contact them whenever the need arises. In fact, it is one
of the major reasons that we have the high number of unclaimed passports.
“The Ministry of Interior and the Nigeria Immigration have
been working assiduously to make the process of obtaining the Nigerian
international passports easier and stress-free, and this gesture must be
reciprocated by applicants coming forward to collected their processed
passports,’’ he said.
It would be recalled that the Ministry of Interior and NIS,
in continuation of the implementation of passport administration and
immigration service reforms, recently launched a series of proactive measures
to address the concerns of Nigerians living abroad whose passports have
expired, and willing to come home.
Among the measures is the setting up of a special fast-rack
service that enables Nigerians with expired passports living in foreign
countries to return home without any hindrance at all ports of entry.
The NIS also set up dedicated Diaspora Desks at all international
airports across the country to give priority attention to the returnees and
their families to renew their expired international passports within 2 weeks as
well as access other immigration services.
CGI Idris in furtherance of the series of measures also
wrote to the Nigerian Foreign Missions, Immigration Attaches, Airport
Comptrollers, and local and international airline operators to allow holders of
expired Nigerian international passports to board at their respective countries
of residence as well as allow them entry into Nigeria without any inhibition.