Nigeria is confronting a looming passport scarcity as thousands of passport booklets remain stranded in warehouses across the country due to a cash crunch and bureaucratic bottlenecks.
This revelation comes as service providers report outstanding debts running into billions of naira, further exacerbating the situation.
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has been grappling with challenges related to the remittance of its share of revenues from passport issuance, hindering the distribution of funds necessary to clear the backlog and release the passport booklets from storage.
The Treasury Single Account (TSA), a key component of the government’s financial management system, has been inactive, complicating matters further.
The scarcity of passport booklets threatens to derail the progress made by the Ministry of Interior in clearing over 200,000 passport backlogs, a feat achieved through reforms initiated by Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior.
Despite these efforts, the current predicament risks leading to another accumulation of passport applications if not urgently addressed.
Officials of the NIS have emphasized that the Service should not bear the blame for the impending scarcity, highlighting the complexities of revenue distribution and bureaucratic procedures involved in passport issuance.
The NIS relies heavily on revenue from abroad, which accounts for 50% of the proceeds from passport issuance. Delays in accessing these funds have severely hampered the NIS’s ability to settle debts with service providers and release the passport booklets to the public.
As concerns mount over the potential passport shortage, applicants across the country are experiencing difficulties obtaining the necessary documentation, with complaints emerging from passport offices in various locations, including Lagos and Abuja.
Efforts to resolve the crisis are underway, but the lingering challenges underscore the need for swift and effective measures to ensure the timely availability of passport booklets and maintain the integrity of Nigeria’s passport issuance system.