The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has declared that the automation of passport applications is on the brink of completion, reaching an impressive 99%. During an interview on Tuesday on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Tunji-Ojo disclosed that the system is set to go live within the next week.
In his statement, Tunji-Ojo explained, “Automation of passport applications is 99 percent done. We’ve done the testing, and it should go live in the next week or thereabouts. That will ensure that all Nigerians must do in an immigration center—a passport center—is just biometrics to take their fingerprints. All other things will be in the comfort of your home, including uploading your passport picture and supporting documents, just like your visa.”
This development follows the minister’s commitment to streamlining the passport application process, with the possibility of online submissions becoming available as early as December. Tunji-Ojo emphasized the need to simplify the often “chaotic” passport application process to make it more user-friendly.
Addressing service providers, Tunji-Ojo stressed, “You need to make life easy for people. As a government and service, we cannot make things more difficult than they ought to be.” The minister outlined the forthcoming reforms, indicating that the entire passport application process, including form filling and payments, can be completed online starting from December.
Tunji-Ojo assured Nigerians that the ministry is committed to minimizing frustration in the application process. Under the new system, only biometric capture would require a physical presence at the immigration office, while all other details could be submitted through the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) portal.
“The era of people sacrificing a whole day just because they want to go to a passport office for enrollment is over; it is unacceptable. You cannot inconvenience people based on their rights; it is the right of the people to have a seamless experience,” Tunji-Ojo emphasized, underlining the importance of a smooth and efficient application process.
In a related update, the Minister announced that out of the backlog of over 300,000 international passports he inherited, 204,322 are now ready for collection. However, he noted that only 99,901 have been collected so far.
