The Federal Government has said that the hike in passport prices to N100,000 and N200,000 was inevitable to maintain the quality and efficient delivery of travel documents.
The Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service, A.S. Akinlabi, announced on Thursday that a 32-page passport would now cost N100,000 to process as from September 1, 2025.
The 32-page, five-year validity passport cost N50,000 until now. The 64-page, 10-year validity passport that used to cost N100,000 will now cost N200,000 from September.
The new prices affect only the passport applications made in Nigeria.
Nigerians outside the country will continue to pay $150 for the 32-page, five-year passport and $230 for the 64-page, 10-year passport.
It would be recalled that an upward review of the passports was done in August of last year.
The price of the 32-page, five-year booklet was moved up from N35,000 to N50,000, while the 64-page, 10-year booklet was moved from N70,000 to N100,000.
The NIS attributed the hike to the need to sustain the quality of the passport and improve service delivery.
The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has also spoken in defence of he new hike.
Tunji Ojo told participants at the ministry’s mid-tenure performance retreat that the increment was aimed at eliminating corruption and boosting efficiency.
The minister said the target was for Nigerians to get their passports within one week of applying.
Ojo said the new system was designed to eliminate delays and extortion and has made it unnecessary to pay huge sums for fast-track processing.
He recalled that the system he inherited had a backlog of six months, which he and his team cleared in two and a half weeks.
Ojo said when he was the chairman of the House Committee on NDDC, he had to pay hundreds of thousands to get his then 12-year-old daughter a passport.
The minister said the centralised personalisation centre he introduced was the largest in Africa and would ensure faster processing and tighter security.
He said the new infrastructure could print five times more passports than Nigeria currently needs. He added that once a Nigerian enrols, it no longer takes more than 24 hours to vet. The minister said printing, too, is no longer a problem.
Tunji-Ojo further disclosed that Passport Control Officers no longer have the power to approve or delay applications.
He said that abuse of power had ended with the centralisation of the approval process. The minister said this would curb corruption and restore credibility to Nigeria’s travel documents.
Tunji-Ojo said his responsibility was not for the PCOs to like him but for him to deliver efficiency.
He also said he had a responsibility to ensure that anyone carrying the passport was a Nigerian.
