Nigerians have constantly complained about the stress attached to obtaining a passport.
In a bid to make the application process for Nigerian passports easier, the Federal Government has announced that it will introduce a platform online for monitoring and tracking passport applications from May 2022.
Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, made this disclosure in Abuja on Tuesday, April 12, 2022, during the opening of a two-day workshop for Passport Control Officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service. Aregbesola noted that the government has concluded plans to launch a system that would minimize interaction between passport applicants and immigration officers. He further said that apart from the verification and linking of the National Identity Number, there should be no delays in passport issuance for applicants.
“Not later than a month from today, applicants will be able to track their application online to know precisely what stage is your application. You will not have the hassle of people coming. Just go online with your reference number to check and it will state whether you are having a NIN problem,’’
Aregbesola revealed.
“It will tell you the status of your application. It will tell you whether your passport is ready and you can pick it. This will be a month from now by the grace of God.”
Reacting to the waiting time for fresh passport applications, Aregbesola disclosed that the new arrangement will see fresh passports issued in not more than six weeks, while renewed passports will be issued in not more than three weeks.
“We have adopted a maximum processing period of six weeks. It can be less but it should not be more. If it is more, let it be rare, let it be caused by an external factor, not you. To obtain fresh passports, it should be a maximum of three weeks. It can be less for the renewal,”
the Minister insisted.
Also, Aregbesola did not fail to warn immigration officials against sharp practices, urging them to treat applicants like they will do customers. He emphasized President Buhari’s approval of full technological deployment for the application process before the end of the year, noting that there will be drastic changes.
“Very soon, you will not see any passport applicants. Very soon there will be no files. Technology has provided so much succour for whoever wants to be efficient. That will be before the end of this year. Passport processing will be absolutely digitised. As it is impossible to see the air, it will be impossible for anybody to even know which passport is going where. It will just be in the system,’’
Aregbesola promised.
“We will get to a stage where no passport applicant will meet any immigration officer in the process of processing passports and there will be no manual documentation of that process.”
Source:
Punch NG
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