The Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has ordered the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to swiftly clear over 200,000 pending international passport applications within two weeks.
The minister gave the order during a meeting with top government officials, the NIS Acting Comptroller General, Caroline Adepoju, and the Managing Director of Iris Smart Technologies, a third-party company in charge of the production of passport booklets, Yinka Fisher.
The order comes sequel to the minister’s promise to eliminate bottlenecks in the acquisition of passports and other immigration documents.
Processing and enrolment of passports in Nigeria is often fraught with delays, which lead to missed opportunities and frustration for many Nigerians.
At present, there is a backlog of as much as 200,000 delayed passports, a situation the minister said calls for national emergency.
“As far as I am concerned, the issue of passport is a national emergency. I keep getting emails daily from Nigerians complaining. We cannot continue like that,” the minister was quoted to have said at the meeting.
“It has become an embarrassment to His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I represent him here as your minister. That embarrassment is mine now. I am not changing my words. I need the backlog cleared in two weeks,” he said.
Adepoju and Fisher assured the minister that all necessary resources and measures would be deployed to ensure the expedited processing of the pending passport applications.
Adepoju disclosed that though the number of enrolments as of Thursday morning spills into 200,000 across the country, the agency has been able to secure enough booklets to clear the backlog.
