The Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Mrs. Caroline Adepoju, has announced plans to establish additional passport service points to cater to the requirements of Nigerians residing in the Diaspora.
Mrs. Caroline Adepoju, the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), has disclosed intentions to create
“I have it on good authority that in the UK, we have over four million Nigerians and this number increases every day because of the “Japa syndrome”; families that relocated, students, and those in search of greener pastures and jobs.”
“So all hands are on deck to ensure that we create more service points in the UK, Canada, and in the USA.”
”We listen to the plight of our nationals, we hear their cries and we are working hard and by the grace of God, we will get there,” she said.
Adepoju mentioned that the service had inaugurated three new passport processing centers within Nigeria, situated in Ikorodu, Offa, and Ile-Oluji. This initiative aims to alleviate the workload on passport centers in Lagos, Kwara, and Ondo states.
“More are coming, we are going to Ibadan, Badagry, we will look at everywhere we have higa h volume of applications.
“I want Nigerians to continue to support me, understand, and be aware that they owe us the duty of ensuring that they apply for their passports when it is about six months before the expiry date, that will ease the pressure on them and the system.
“And Nigerians should stop patronizing touts. Nigerians can apply for International Passport online and can make payments and book appointments online.
“Very soon, we are looking at making everything digital so that there would be minimal human interference,” the NIS CG said.
She also urged individuals in the diaspora whose passports are linked to their residence and status abroad to be consistently mindful of the necessity to renew their passports promptly.
Adepoju attributed delays in passport issuance to technical issues such as the non-alignment of applicants’ data with their National Identity Number (NIN), which must be rectified by the National Identification Management Commission (NIMC).
“Usually when such a thing happens, such passport may have technical issues like non alignment of the NIN with the data supplied for the passport application.
“Fortunately, NIMC are in the same ministry as us and we have engaged with them and we are having a robust relationship, so the issue of NIN being a problem will soon become a thing of the past.
”But that being said, for people who are experiencing such hardship, we have mechanisms in place where complaints and feedback can reach us through our website, and we will do everything we can to resolve the issues,” she said.
Adepoju mentioned that the NIS has processed and resolved thousands of pending passport applications and encouraged those who submitted applications to come forward and retrieve their passports.
“There are thousands of uncollected passports. About a few months ago, I published the names of all applicants and the passports ready in Nigeria.”
“I was in London two weeks ago and I was shocked at the number of passports already produced, waiting for collection,” the NIS boss added.