President Bola Tinubu’s administration has designed the new introduced new features and templates for acquisition of the Nigerian passports.
The move, according to interior minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, is to block non citizens from faking or acquiring the Nigerian passport.
The minister said passports remained a national identity and vital documents to all citizens and its sanctity should be well protected.
According to him, the new conditions or templates introduced as prerequisites for obtaining or renewing passports were instituted to curb the acquisition of Nigerian passports by non-citizens.
Tunji-Ojo emphasised that the Nigerian passport is a security document exclusive to citizens.
He lamented that foreigners have exploited the inefficiencies of the previous system to acquire the documents.
The minister, however, acknowledged challenges faced by applicants for the new passport, assuring the public of an enhanced process in the coming weeks.
Tunji-Ojo explained that the reforms were aimed at simplifying the passport acquisition process for Nigerians through facilitating speedy online application, production, and passport collection.
“We have to introduce this new system in order to stop those non-Nigerians carrying Nigerian passports. Contrary to reports, the new process is working very effectively and hiccups recorded is only 4 per cent, which is significant improvement for a system that is newly introduced and I assure you that in the next one or two weeks we will have near perfect system.
“We have to improve our process of obtaining passports because passport is a security document. This new system has improved accessibility, transparency and efficiency,” the Minister stated.
“We are building a future for Nigerians where things should be done in a better way. We changed the price of five-year passport because the 10-year passport is N70, 000; so, the one for five years should be half of that amount, which is N35. 000. We are committed to making things better in our country,” the Minister added.
