THE Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has announced that home delivery of Nigeria passports would commence in June.
This means Nigerians will be able to obtain their passports at the comfort of their homes without going to the offices of Nigeria Immigration of Service.
Tunji-Ojo disclosed this on Friday, May 25 when he inspected the electronic gates at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport’s new terminal in Abuja.
He revealed that the delivery service would not cover every location to prevent overloading and damaging the system.
According to him, the Nigerian Immigration Service would begin home delivery in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Abuja.
For Nigerians abroad, he stated that the home delivery service would initially be launched in the United States and the United Kingdom, with preliminary testing to ensure its effectiveness.
The minister explained that the delay in implementing home delivery was due to a lack of data centres.
He noted that the NIS had been using a private company’s data centre and stressed the need for a permanent solution to this issue.
“We have completed the whole solution but when we came on board, we realised that the data centre was not really there. We were leveraging on a private company data centre and we appreciate them for that assistance. We think that it is better to create a permanent solution to problems rather than quick fixes.
“We could have done it in February but we had to build our data centre from scratch to be able to keep the integrity of our data and national security intact. This is more important. It is disgraceful that NIS is 61 years old and NIS is a custodian of biometric data of Nigeria and we believe that NIS should be in charge of the data of Nigerians. It is not acceptable that this data is domiciled in a third party and that is why we have been able to do this,” he said.
He explained that the data centre had been constructed and the passport delivery issue has been resolved.
“It is about national security and I can assure you that It is comparable with anyone you can find anywhere in the world.
“We have built the data centre, sorted the passport delivery solution and done the final presentation in terms of technology deliverables and the tracking solution which will all be embedded in the application we have so we do not create multiple lines of failure,” the minister said.
He stated that the final presentation of the electronic visa had been completed, adding that it would reduce the visa processing time from 72 hours to 48 hours.
“The passport automation process is almost complete,” he added.
Before now, Nigerians used to wait for a long time for their passports after application.
But in October 2023, the Federal Government, through Tunji-Ojo informed Nigerians that the era was over.
He stated that starting in February 2024, Nigerians would be able to have their passports delivered to their homes, offices, or any other location of their choice.
The ICIR reported how difficult passport application and access have been with officials neck-deep in passport racketeering.
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.