The Federal Government has announced a two-week timeline for the “processing of passport applications”, declaring that “no Nigerian will have to wait for more than two weeks to get an international passport henceforth.”

Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo who made the declaration regretted that the clearance of the backlog had spilled into THREE WEEKS as opposed to the TWO WEEKS DEADLINE he gave, however praised officers and men for working day and night including weekends and public holidays to meet with his directive, to clear over 204,000 backlog of passport applications.

According to him, while procurement of visas is a privilege, acquiring international passports is a right.

He also expressed the commitment of President Bola Tinubu to not increase the cost of passport application in spite of the foreign exchange volatility.

The minister who disclosed that he has perused all the contracts and agreements with service providers, revealed that in the next couple of months, passport applicants will be able to upload their own passport photographs via the immigration portal, rather than going to passport offices for such capture.

According to him, applicants would only be required to visit the passport offices for their biometrics enrolment.