Why we created ‘contactless’ passport renewal process – Minister

Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has highlighted some reasons the Nigerian Immigration Service is launching a ‘contactless’ process to renewing the Nigerian Passport within and outside the country.

For years, Nigerians have complained and lamented the passport acquisition and renewal process, which they say is filled with bottlenecks, bureaucracy, unnecessary difficulties, location challenges, long queues, long waiting times, and corruption.

The minister shared the reasons behind the project while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Friday.

Speaking on Nigerians in the diaspora, Mr Tunji-Ojo said, “Sometimes, you have to travel for six hours by flight, you have to cancel a day’s job, and some students have to cancel school for a day just because you need a passport.

“If you look at a place like the UK, for instance, on the queue in London, we have arguably, over 16,000 applicants and the maximum we can take in a day is about 200/300, so how long will it take us to attend to 16,000 people?

“It surprises me when a top person in government calls you, and they say, please, I need a favour. I have someone in need of a passport. That shouldn’t be. So we just thought that we should be able to create what we call a VAS, Value Added Service.

“Of course, we have to partner with the private sector to get this done, and it is not going to be free. The option of going to the Immigration centre is still open, but for those who may want to. For those who may not, you can sit in the comfort of your room and do everything about the passport and expect the passport to get to your house, arguably within the next 24 or 48 hours,” the minister said.

Curbing challenges

The minister highlighted that this solution seeks to address why people have to go to the NIS office in the first place.

“The only reason you go is because of your biometric capture. The world has gone so digital now that you don’t need to physically go and capture. In fact, what you do virtually, the resolution can even be better than the one you go to do physically,” he said.

On the corruption inherent in the existing system, he said it is when people are present that illegal payments can be requested from them. “It is people that you see that you will collect bribes from because I still attend to cases, even yesterday, especially in some notorious areas, like in Umuahia. For a passport of 50,000, you’ll pay 100,000 or N150,000 to get it.

“Sometimes, the passport will be ready, but it will not be released until you pay. So Nigerians are being made to go through this level of hardship. We believe that the essence of government is to be responsive, the reason we are in government today is because we must be dynamic. Problems are constantly changing, so we must keep updating our technology.

“We told the service providers, Iris Smart Tecnologies and Newworks Solutions, that thing that people are going to do in the office, automate it and put it together as a single model. Today, we are happy to present to you what they have been able to put together over the past nine months.”

Who can benefit from this process?

According to the minister, to benefit from this process, you must be 18 years or older and have a previous passport that you want to renew. This means that the service is unavailable for first-time applicants “because we must also balance our security concerns with what we are trying to do,” he said.

The process

The first process is downloading the app from the Android and Apple stores. The app is owned by the Nigerian Immigration Service and is branded the same. After that, the user needs to create a profile. This ensures that everyone who uses the app has a log of their activity.

The user would then provide their NIN information, which is integrated with NIMC, and details of the expired passport. Thereafter, the user would upload some data. There would be a section for taking a selfie, which would capture the face and then fingerprints. All information must match that of the NIS data page.

Once the fingerprint is verified, the user will be prompted to make a payment. Due to unforeseen circumstances, data is retained for about 48 hours for every user, during which they can pick up the application process from where they stopped.

Enrollment is 100 per cent completed after successful payment. The minister assured that citizens’ data and national security would not be compromised.

“In fact, the whole idea is to enhance national security. The best way to fight corruption is to make sure there is no opportunity for it to even take place.

“Once you capture, it queries the database to compare data and other features and if it tallies, it is approved for production and delivery. Wherever state or country you are, you don’t need to queue. You don’t need to pay 150 pounds just because you want someone to help shunt the queue. You don’t need to pay 200 pounds because you need your passport asap.

“With this, we can reduce corruption within the system, and whatever you pay will go to the government. The government can make use of such revenue to improve the system, rather than when people are paying more, but they are going to private pockets.”

When is this process to begin?

The minister said the solution is 100 per cent ready and will be centralised in Abuja on 1 April, 2025.

“The process will go live on April 1, but before then, there will be a lot of testing.”

Mr Tunji-Ojo said Nigeria currently has about 100 passport production centres, “but we would centralise passport production to only Lagos and Abuja. Every passport would be issued in Nigeria, as it is done all over the world. We now have passport production machines that can produce about 800 passports per hour, and by March 31, they would be ready. We are optimistic that this would be the end to the corruption related to passport renewal.”