By John Ikani
The Federal Government of Nigeria has said that the full digitisation of Nigerian passport processes would be completed by December this year.
Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola disclosed this on Saturday while featuring on a NAN Forum in Abuja.
According to him, the complete digitisation would eliminate any form of contact between passport applicants and immigration officers, as well as reduce corruption in the system.
He also said the development will put to end the numerous complaints by Nigerians over the incessant delays in the acquisition of Nigerian passports both within and outside the country.
What the minister is saying
“We are on it, and by December we will remove any manual processing of passports,” the minister said.
“Now, we still have some manual parts, because files are still manually opened.
“By December, particularly in the busiest passport processing centres, there will be no manual segment of the passport processing, every part of it will be digitised.”
The minister further urged Nigerians to begin applying for their passports at least six months before the scheduled time of travel.
He said, “If you need a passport now, start the process very early, do not begin the processing efforts two weeks before your traveling.
“If you don’t, already you have created problems for yourself, because the system, after capturing, which is the enrolment of your data, we harmonise it with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) database.’’
Aregbesola also urged passport applicants to ensure their names and other information tallies with their details on the National Identity database.
He said, “Every identity document must be the same to ease capturing,” he said, adding that even wrong arrangements of names could create delays in the processing of a passport.
“You must understand what it is. It is a presidential order that the new passport regime should be such that all data and everything about you as an individual must be the same and harmonised.
“What you have in the passport, which is the most secured identity document, must be the same with every other aspect of you, whether in the bank or at the national identity database.
“When you come to us to register, after filling your form online, you come for data capturing, and what you do there is to harmonise what you have filed in your form and your bio-data as we advance.
“So when your name doesn’t tally with what we have, your data information is not the same on the relevant platforms, we will have some challenges with passport processing.’’
