Nigerians will soon be able to receive their passports at their doorstep, eliminating the need to visit immigration offices.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, revealed this development during his inspection of the electronic gates at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport’s new terminal in Abuja on Friday.
Tunji-Ojo explained that the home delivery service, set to commence in June, will initially cover select locations to prevent system overload and damage. The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) will roll out the service in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Abuja.
Additionally, Nigerians in the diaspora, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, will undergo preliminary testing before the service is fully operational.
The minister attributed the delay in implementing home delivery to the lack of data centers. He emphasized the importance of establishing a permanent solution rather than relying on temporary fixes. Tunji-Ojo expressed concern over the outsourcing of biometric data management to third-party entities, stressing the need for NIS to have full control over Nigeria’s data.
“We have completed the whole solution but when we came on board, we realised that the data centre was not really there. We were leveraging on a private company data centre and we appreciate them for that assistance. We think that it is better to create a permanent solution to problems rather than quick fixes.
“We could have done it in February but we had to build our data centre from scratch to be able to keep the integrity of our data and national security intact. This is more important. It is disgraceful that NIS is 61 years old and NIS is a custodian of biometric data of Nigeria and we believe that NIS should be in charge of the data of Nigeria.
“It is not acceptable that this data is domiciled in a third party and that is why we have been able to do this,” he said.
With the completion of the data center construction, passport delivery issues have been resolved, ensuring national security and data integrity. The minister assured that the new system meets global standards and incorporates tracking solutions to prevent failures.
“It is about national security and I can assure you that It is comparable with anyone you can find anywhere in the world.
“We have built the data centre, sorted the passport delivery solution and done the final presentation in terms of technology deliverables and the tracking solution which will all be embedded in the application we have so we do not create multiple lines of failure,” the minister said.
Furthermore, Tunji-Ojo announced the completion of the final presentation for electronic visas, which will expedite visa processing from 72 to 48 hours. He highlighted the nearing completion of the passport automation process, marking significant progress in streamlining immigration services.
This announcement follows the minister’s earlier declaration in February 2024 that home delivery of passports would commence, fulfilling a promise made in October to introduce the service by February 2024.
