The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has begun the issuance of the new passport booklet with 10-year validity only at the agency’s Headquarters, Abuja.
The enhanced polycarbonate passport booklet which was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on January 15, 2019, was embedded with the National Identity Number.
While taking newsmen round the passport office in Abuja, the NIS Public Relations Officer, DCI Sunday James, said the new booklet was part of a comprehensive passport reform approved by the federal government to improve the quality and security of the travel document meant to address incidence of damage, counterfeit, and forgery.
He said it was compulsory for passport applicants to have a NIN number, adding that NIS management had set up a desk where individuals can register for the NIN which he said was mandatory.
James stated, “The National Identity Number is compulsory for all applicant of the new document. To make it easy for applicants, the Nigeria Immigration Service has provided space for National Identity Management Commission at the Service Headquarters, Abuja to register applicants and issue to them the NIN.
“The public are advised not to rush for the new booklet as the new enhanced passport will run concurrently with the old one.”
The NIS spokesman further said that applicants holding a passport with more than six months validity are not eligible for the new booklet except in the case of damage, change of data and those whose booklets were exhausted.
James advised applicants to pay online or directly to the banks situated within the passport offices, advising that they should not patronize touts “as all the service windows are equipped to meet their needs.”
He added that the Comptroller-General of Immigration Service, Muhammad Babandede, had directed passport offices at the state commands to continue to issue the old booklet while the service headquarters Abuja would only issue the new passport booklet.
However, the passport office Gwagwalada would also continue to issue the old passport pending the roll out in Ikoyi on June 3; Alausa, Lagos on July 8; and London on July 29, 2019.
