The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced a new e-passport, and has implored Nigerians to avoid paying money to unauthorised and corrupt officials.
The Nigerian Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola also said at the Nigerian Immigration Service office in Ibadan that payments for Nigerian passports have now been digitalised, meaning that Nigerians can now pay for their passports online and do not necessarily have to pay officials who collect incentives to circumvent due process.
Aregbesola stated that some reforms were taking place in the passport process, which includes the digitalisation of both passport applications and payments. The minister then went ahead to lament that people still go to unauthorised officials in order to speed up the passport process.
He stated that most times, Nigerians who have been dealt blows by these officials then go to complain to the government, who in turn doles out disciplinary measures concerning the whole process.
The Minister went ahead to implore Nigerians to avoid engaging directly with their officials, and to strictly follow all the processes that have been put in place by the government. He said that the only direct engagement that Nigerians are required to have with the officials is the enrolment of biometric details.
Aregbesola reminded Nigerians of the template, which gives a maximum time period of six weeks to collect new passports and a maximum of three weeks to complete renewal of old passports. He claimed that the system works within this particular schedule so that they can identify any issues that have been reported by people and work towards correcting the reported errors.
The Minister then urged those who face any challenges in their application to wait, assuring them that the issues will be resolved in time, without them needing to approach officials to speed up the process. He went ahead to mention that passports all around the world are not received immediately, and that applicants would need to exercise patience before the process is completed.
