Nigerian Government has announced that home delivery of passports will commence in June.
Gatekeepers News reports that this development aims to make passport acquisition more convenient for Nigerians, eliminating the need to visit immigration offices.
During an inspection of the electronic gates at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport’s new terminal in Abuja, Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo revealed that the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) will initially offer home delivery in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Abuja.
For Nigerians in the diaspora, the service will first launch in the United States and the United Kingdom, following preliminary testing.
The minister attributed the delay in implementing home delivery to a lack of data centres. He emphasized the need for a permanent solution, rather than relying on a private company’s data centre.
“We think it is better to create a permanent solution to problems rather than quick fixes,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo explained that the NIS has constructed its own data centre to ensure the integrity of national data and security.
“It is about national security, and I can assure you that it is comparable with anyone you can find anywhere in the world,” he stated.
Also, the minister announced that the final presentation of the electronic visa has been completed, which will reduce visa processing time from 72 hours to 48 hours.
According to him, the passport automation process is almost complete, and the tracking solution will be embedded in the application to avoid multiple lines of failure.
This announcement comes nine months after the minister initially declared that home delivery of passports would commence by February 2024.
