Why Nigerians are experiencing delays in issuing international passports – Official

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has explained why there has been a backlog in issuing passports to Nigerians over the past two years.

NIS spokesperson Amos Okpu said the COVID-19 pandemic was a major setback in the production and processing of the travel document.

Mr. Okpu made this known during a weekly PREMIUM TIMES Twitter space on Wednesday.

"COVID-19 19 affected operations, we didn't close and people still had access to make payments. When the space opened up, we had excess applications," he said. -he declared.

"We need to process them, but no real production was going on in all sectors and passport production was no exception," he added.

He said, however, that the NIS had begun to process the backlog.

“We had an upsurge in applications during and after covid. We need time to stabilize the system. We are not happy about it, we are dealing with the situation,” he stressed.

He added that some of the materials used for the production of the passports do not come from the country due to inadequate technology.

As part of efforts to ensure the distribution of passports, he said service officers were now working weekends to ensure the backlog was cleared.

Bad Documentation

The NIS official also lamented instances of poor documentation by candidates.

"Documentation is a challenge, sometimes candidates' phone numbers don't exist. When we send bulk text messages to candidates, some don't receive them because of wrong documents," he said .

"Some agents put their number in place of the candidate's, it's usually difficult to reach them," he said.

READ ALSO:

Addressing the issue of improved passports in some regions, he explained that after a review in 2017, the NIS decided to migrate to an improved passport and decided to follow a template or procedure to avoid confusion.< /p>

"We don't have the technology. No delay. We apologize and bear with us a bit. It's not a hopeless situation. It's a work in progress," he said. .

Hold us accountable

He urged Nigerians to question poor service delivery by service officers.

“When an officer asks for something that is against the law, we expect you to question them. Elevate them to a higher officer,” he said.

Earlier, Nigerian Home Minister Rauf Aregbesola said there is no shortage of passport booklets in Nigeria as all backlogs have been cleared.

“In 2021 alone, we provided 1.3 million passports to Nigerians. To date, there is no shortage of booklets in Nigeria,” he said.

“In the second quarter of 2022, the NIS provided 645,000 passports out of the 750,000 applications received.

"To address the backlog challenge, we sent 11,000 booklets to Ikoyi, 11,000 to Alausa and 8,000 to FESTAC centers in Lagos State. We also sent enough booklets to all centers of the country to meet this challenge,” said the minister.

According to him, 10,000 passport booklets have been rolled out at the new Port Harcourt passport production facility, to speed up passport issuance in the state.

Continue Reading

Support the integrity and credibility journalism of PREMIUM TIMES Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can guarantee the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy and a transparent government. For free and continued access to the best investigative journalism in the country, we ask that you consider providing modest support to this noble endeavour. By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you help sustain relevant journalism and keep it free and accessible to everyone.

Donate

[embedded content]

TEXT ANNOUNCEMENT: Call Willie - +2348098788999...