The Nigerian Immigration Service has assured passport applicants, who have not been able to obtain their travel documents, that the documents will be ready before the end of March this year.
The Assistant Comptroller General in charge of Passports and Other Travels Directorates, NIS, Modupe Anyalechi, gave this assurance in an interview with journalists in Ibadan on Friday after inspecting the Ibadan Passport Production Centre, which was recently inaugurated.
She said she was in Ibadan on the directive of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, and the acting Comptroller of Immigration, to ensure that the backlog of passports are cleared by the date set by the immigration boss.
Anyalechi advised Nigerians to ensure that the arrangement of their names was in order and that they have valid means of identification, while stressing that online application and appointment booking would also assist the agency and the applicants to be served better.
The ACG said, “I am here with 30,000 booklets to come and clear the backlog with a view to meeting the target set by the acting CGIS that by the end of March, the issue of backlog would have become a thing of the past.
“The facility that was launched, the Ibadan Passport Production Centre, is working well as I was told by the PCO. The applicants I met also commended it. Before now, people would go to passport offices and spend two or three days there without knowing when they would be called for capture.
“But now, with the introduction of online payment and appointment systems, all you need to do is to log in and fill the application form and load the proper information and then you are at liberty to choose any passport office you will like to be attended to at your own convenience. When your passport is ready, you will be called to pick it up.
Some of the passport applicants also commended the move, saying the online application system was very convenient and better than the previous arrangements.
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