The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Muhammad Babandede, has stated that passport racketeering has been eliminated from the service for good with the new procedure just put in place.
He therefore urged passport applicants to cut out touts or any other ‘helper’ when applying for a new passport or renewing their old ones.
The NIS boss assured that the new procedure is efficient, even as he cautioned passport racketeers and defaulting officers within the service to abstain from practices capable of undermining the NIS’ reform.
He said this while announcing the reopening of the passport applications and payment portal.
According to a statement by the service’s Public Relations Officer, Amos Okpu, on Tuesday the passport application portal was opened to the public yesterday, June 8, 2021 by midnight to allow eligible passport applicants to apply and make payments for the various categories of passports of their choice.
“The passport portal was closed following the directives of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on May 17, 2021 to allow the service to clear all backlogs of applications that have piled up across Issuing Centres in the past few months.”
The statement said under the new passport regime, applications and payments for passport services shall be made through the service’s website.
“Upon successful applications, applicants shall make their online booking interview/enrolment appointment on any day, time and location they consider convenient.
“That the new timeline for passport production and issuance after a successful enrolment at the selected issuing centre shall be six weeks for fresh applications and three weeks for re-issue (renewal applications).”
You can access the portal here.
