THE Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, says reforms are underway to simplify the passport application process with the possibility of Nigerians being able to begin submitting online applications as early as December.
Speaking on Channels Televion’s Politics Today on Wednesday monitored by News Point Nigeria, Tunji-Ojo stated that one of the reforms the ministry is implementing in passport management is to put an end to the “chaotic” passport application process.
“For me personally, I have said this to service providers; I said it today, I said it yesterday, and I have always told them, ‘You need to make life easy for people. We cannot, as a government, as a service, make things more difficult than they ought to be,’” he said.
“Part of the reforms that we are putting in place now, starting from December, is that even when you want to enrol for your passport, you fill your forms online, you do your payments online, and everything.”
The minister was responding to a question on international best practices for passport application and collection, compared to what obtains in Nigeria, and avenues to reduce Nigerians’ frustration in the application process.
In comparison to the passport application process abroad, the minister stated that only a biometric capture needs to be done in person, explaining that all necessary details can be submitted via a Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) portal.
“You do not need to go to the passport office to have your picture captured. People apply for American visas, people apply for UK visas, people apply all over the world. Your passport with the required specifications as directed by the NIS will be uploaded on the platform.
“You upload your passport online, you upload your supporting documents online, so when you go to the immigration office, you spend just like five minutes just to have your biometric captured; that’s all,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo stressed that the days of drawn-out enrollment procedures are long gone and unacceptable, adding that it is Nigerians’ right to experience a smooth procedure.
“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,” he said.
Although there are 36 states in Nigeria, Rivers and Sokoto have no data for Q1 2023 yet; Akwa Ibom has no data for Q1 2022, while Kwara, Edo, Kaduna, Lagos, Bauchi, Zamfara, Yobe, and Ogun have no data for Q4 2022.
Therefore, the figure for IGR was limited to 25 out of the 36 states in the country.
The PUNCH findings showed that the 25 states projected an IGR of N219.56bn for Q1 2023 but only made about N182.26bn, which means that they had a revenue performance of 83.01 per cent.
This also means that the revenue underperformed by 16.99 per cent as it failed to hit the states’ revenue target.