The Minister of Interior, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has disclosed that applicants would soon begin to get Nigerian passports within 24 hours.
In a statement issued yesterday, the minister said passports would be issued in each of the 774 local government areas in the country to reduce the problem of getting them.
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Aregbesola stated this at the newly inaugurated Maitama Passport Express Centre.
He explained that the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Passport Express Centre, Maitama Abuja was established in partnership with the private sector to make passport Issuance more convenient and quick.
Aregbesola stated that the opening of the centre, which signified the inauguration of the Passport Issuance decentralisation policy of the administration, was the first of many more to be established in every local government area in Nigeria and designed to offer specialized services to Nigerians.
Aregbesola said, “MPEC is in response to the yearnings of the general public for the Ministry of Interior and the Nigeria Immigration Service to devise additional ways that the passport Issuance process can be less stressful and more efficient. It is the future. The goal is to have a facility like this in every local government in the country.
“Every Nigerian has the right to a Nigerian passport and it is our responsibility to put it in the hands of anyone desirous of it within the shortest possible time, without stress. The passport should be available in maximum of 72 hours of a successful application. Where there are issues, the applicant must be notified within 48 hours.
“The commencement of the operations of this world-class facility will not only offer Nigerians services of convenience and pleasure by taking away the hitherto stress in the conventional passport offices, but it will also afford Nigerians the opportunity of getting their passports within 24 hours, at the high premium service and 72 hours at the ordinary premium service, albeit with added value and a little bit of extra cost.”
