The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially terminated passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this on Thursday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone. “The project is 100 per cent ready.
Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He stated that the old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system has a substantially higher capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“As a result, NIS can now fulfill daily demands within an expedited timeframe of just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
Our initial promise was two-week delivery, but we are now targeting one week.
According to the minister, automation and optimisation are vital for fulfilling this promise to Nigerians.
He pointed out that centralisation, consistent with global standards, would enhance uniformity and bolster the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
He stated that the centralised production system aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, augmenting NIS capacity and transforming the narrative for improved service delivery.
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