Connect with us

News

Passport: NIS Introduces Tracking System, Opens New Offices

Published

on

Passport: NIS introduces Tracking System, Opens New Offices

The Acting  Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Mr. Jere Idris has said the service has introduced passport tracking system as part of its ongoing reforms to make passport issuance and renewal seamless for Nigerians.

This is as the CGIS also disclosed that in the next four weeks, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, Minister of Interior, would be inaugurating new passport offices in some five states of the federation including Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Kaduna and Daura, the hometown of President Muahammadu Buhari in Katsina State.

Speaking with journalists over the weekend, Mr Idris explained that the with the new tracking system, applicants can now trace the status of their passports from the comfort of their homes.

“What applicants just need to do is to log on to www.trackimmigration.gov.ng and upload their details. This system is already in place and Nigerians should take advantage of it,” the acting CGI said.

On passport issuance, he lamented the increasing number of Nigerians seeking override of the newly introduced appointment system for passport issuance, describing it as an abuse of system.

He said the appointment system was introduced to reduce physical interface with personnel, overcrowding and arbitrariness, which he noted have all consistently combined to promote corruption and abuse.

Passport Issuance

However, rather than wait for the appointment date for capturing, the acting CGI frowned that many Nigerians are seeking to jump the process by turning in myriads of requests for waiver for all conceivable reasons.

He said the NIS, based on the directive of Minister Aregbesola, has tried to ensure the sacrosanctity of the three-week duration for passport renewal and six-week duration for new applications

Possible Reasons for Delay

The acting CGIS said there are possible reasons for delay in the processing of passports applications and that these could be as a result of the integration of data between NIS and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), which also in turn integrate with the BVN data of applicants. He said the single data integration policy of the government is aimed at enhancing the nation’s security architecture to protect the identity of Nigerians.

“Apart from this, because passports confer on holders the integrity of a nation, the integrity of producing such documents should also not be compromised. So we must verify the addresses of the applicants and there is a company that already does that for us. We must confirm the authenticity of the claims before we proceed for production,” he said.

NIN validation by applicants

As part of solutions to reduce delay, the acting CGI said within the next four weeks NIS will deploy a new system that will enable applicants to validate their national identity numbers before they can proceed to make payment for passports online and to book appointments for capturing.

“Most delays are usually caused by the NIN validation problems and what we want to do now will allow individual applicants to first of all verify and validate their NIN and only upload validated NIN before they can pay for passports. By doing that, we would have successfully tackled the issue of delay from other partners which we don’t have control over,” he said.

Expedited Passport Issuance

The acting CGI also explained that for genuine medical reasons and other exceptional emergencies NIS takes the pain to override appointments for applicants.

Introduction of Alert System

 The acting CGI said NIS is also working on notifying Nigerians whenever their passports have only six months to expire. “Just like the driver licenses, NIS is planning to introduce an alert system as soon as passports have about six months to expire. This is how much we are introducing technology to ease the stress.

 Opening front offices

The Acting CGI said more passport offices are being opened across the country with one already in place in Sagamu, Ogun State, and others being planned for Ilesa in Osun State, Oyo town in Oyo State, Daura in Katsina State, and Zaria in Kaduna State, among others.

Diaspora Matters

The acting CGI noted that booklets are currently being shared both locally and to the embassies of Nigeria globally so that the Nigerians in diaspora can also be attended to. He, however, complained that access to forex has been difficult for the company handling the passport production project, and that the company only source for forex from markets like other businesses and that the process has been cumbersome and discouraging.

Domestication of passport production

 He said based on the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari, the ultimate goal of the NIS is to domesticate passport production by providing additional job opportunities for Nigerians and improving the country’s economy. Mr Idris said efforts have reached an advanced stage to achieve that.

“But you know we cannot wait until we complete the domestication process before we commence passport issuance. So, we have to continue with the existing system until we are completely through with the local production system,” he said.

The acting CGI, however, advised Nigerians not to wait till their passports validity have expired before they apply for renewal. He said Nigerians are in the habit of waiting for the last minute before they do what they know they will eventually do.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please enter CoinGecko Free Api Key to get this plugin works.
mebookshelfandi