Interior Minister promises to reduce passport delay

The interior minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has promised to address the problems that Nigerians living abroad face when trying to get passports.

In an effort to lessen the difficulty of obtaining a passport for people living abroad, he announced that more passport desk offices would be opened globally by February 2024.

The Minister talked during his Thursday guest appearance on Arise News.

Tunji-Ojo promised that within the following three weeks, captured Nigerians living abroad would receive their passports.

He mentioned that now that the backlogs in the nation have been cleared, his focus is on people living abroad.

“Canada has only one passport office, which is unacceptable,” stated Tunji-Ojo. While it may not be financially feasible for the government to open passport offices everywhere, we must work with private organisations to make this happen. For example, in the UK, you have to come to London for your passport, wherever you are. Corrupt practises arise when there is an excessive demand for a particular item.

Read Also: New EFCC boss, Olukoyede, tells lawmakers to expect anti-graft war to begin from NASS

We will have passport front offices all over the world by February of next year, I promise. Additionally, we are putting a lot of effort into making sure that Nigerians who have already been apprehended and living abroad will receive passports. After resolving the domestic problems, we are now concentrating on the diaspora. We’ll see to it that, within the next two to three weeks, those who were apprehended receive their passports.

The minister said that using technology would greatly aid in reducing corruption in the nation’s passport administration process.

“Avoiding human contact as much as possible is the best way to prevent corruption,” he stated. In order to stop this and improve the services we provide, we must implement technology. Nigerians should also refrain from using proxies to obtain their passports.