By Mercy Daniel
The Federal Government has announced that Nigerians will soon begin to receive their passports within one week, following the completion of a centralized Passport Data Personalization Centre at the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Headquarters in Abuja.
Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who inspected the facility on Thursday, described the centre as a “game-changer” that will revolutionize passport production in the country.
According to him, the centre—Nigeria’s first of its kind since the establishment of the NIS in 1963—places the nation on par with global leaders such as the United States, United Kingdom, France, and India in passport technology.
“Centralization is global best practice because it ensures higher quality, better control, and greater efficiency. We promised Nigerians we would centralize passport production, and today that project is 100 percent ready,” the minister said.
Previously, passport personalization was carried out in about 96 centres across Nigeria and abroad, a system Tunji-Ojo described as “vulnerable and inefficient.”
While the old machines processed only 250–300 passports per machine daily, the new facility produces about 1,000 passports every hour—equivalent to 4,500 to 5,000 in a normal workday.
“This means approved applications can now be printed within 24 hours and delivered within a week,” the minister explained.
He noted that the centralized system will eliminate backlogs, recalling that the government inherited over 204,000 pending applications.
Tunji-Ojo also announced the unification of Nigeria’s two passport series into a single regime, supported by Iris Smart Technologies, and confirmed that Nigeria has fully migrated to the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Public Key Directory, which authenticates travel documents globally.
“With this, the integrity and credibility of the Nigerian passport has been significantly strengthened,” he said.
The minister credited President Bola Tinubu, the Ministry of Interior, NIS leadership, and technical partners for the milestone, stressing that the reforms directly benefit citizens by cutting waiting time from weeks to hours.
“We promised two weeks’ delivery; we are already working towards one week or less. The era of delays and backlogs is over,” he assured.
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