THE Nigerian Government has launched a new passport front office in the Alimosho Area of Lagos to fast-track the application, processing and collecting of the Nigerian international passport for citizens seeking to travel abroad.

Lagos State accounts for 50 per cent of all passport applications nationwide and applicants from the state had complained about the extreme difficulty of getting a passport, including cases of administrative delays and extortion.

During the launch of the new passport office on Monday, January 30, the Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola noted that due to the high demand recorded in the state, there was need to set up more centres to address the shortage and decongest the traffic at the three existing offices in the Ikoyi, FESTAC and Alausa areas of the state.

“We certainly need more of this in Lagos. This is because half of all passport applications are made in Lagos. At no time are less than 100,000 applicants from Lagos on the NIS portal applying for passports.

“We will therefore need not less than 15 of these front offices in Lagos alone, to be able to cut the application waiting period to one week,” Aregbesola said.

The newly set up passport office in Alimosho becomes the 18th of such command structures established across the country by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) since 2019.

The Federal Government due to funding constraint is considering a public-private partnership arrangement to set up more passport front offices in urban centres where applications for passports are high.

“Applications have been increasing every year at an unprecedented rate, due to the tendency of many Nigerians wanting to travel outside the country and those who want to use it as means of identification,” the minister noted.

On his part, the Comptroller-General of the NIS Jere Idris described the office as a “legacy project” that will bring efficient services to Lagos and its environs.