Federal Government says it has digitalized payments for Nigerian Passports to reduce the untold hardship faced by applicants.
Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola stated this during the Rollout of the Enhanced e-Passport with Polycarbonate Data Page and other security features at the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Ibadan.
The minister said part of the reforms was the migration of passport applications and payments to digital platforms.
He noted that applicants still patronised touts and unscrupulous officials in the hope of beating the system and get expedited services.
The minister pointed out that the ministry had zero tolerance for corruption and subversion of due process.
He, however, implored applicants to stop patronising touts and our officials directly.
Speaking on the new application process, the minister noted that a new timeline had been set for fresh passport application and reissue.
Ogbeni Aregbesola stated further that the Enhanced e-Passport was a great improvement on the Biometric Passport technology which Nigeria adopted in 2007 as a deliberate step towards curbing forgery, impersonation and other forms of travel document fraud associated with the old Machine-Readable Passport regime.
The Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Isah Jere, reiterated the call by the minister for citizens to stop patronising touts.
Mr. Jere promised the relented efforts of Nigeria immigrations Services to further strengthen and enhance the passport application process to reduce difficulty.
He added that the service would be launching an appointment management system and a tracking system to know anywhere people are in the world.
Also speaking at the event, the Governor of Oyo State, Engineer Seyi Makinde, who was represented by Chief of Staff, Mr. Segun Ogunwuyi lauded the efforts of the Nigeria Immigration Service saying the state would continue to support the service in performing its statutory duty.
Representatives of other security agencies in Oyo state, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi Olubadan of Ibadan, by Ekefa Balogun, chief Sarafadeen Alli graced the occasion.
Rasheedah Makinde