Nigerians will soon begin to process and receive Nigerian passports from the comfort of their homes, without the hassle of physically appearing to be processed at a passport processing centre.
However, only Nigerians who are 18 years and above, and those who are applying for re-issue of their expired passports will be able to process and obtain the contactless passports while fresh applicants will need to appear and register their biometrics at a passport processing centre for their passports.
The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, announced the new strategy at a stakeholders’ forum where the contactless passport processing App was unfolded in Abuja on Friday.
The contactless passport processing project, which is meant to eliminate human contact as much as possible, is being jointly handled by two Nigerian firms-Irish Smart Technology and New World, which have been test-running the process for the past nine months.
The minister explained that the new technology was adopted to reduce the burden usually encountered by Nigerians at home and abroad in their quest to obtain a Nigerian passport and save them from being exploited by middlemen, who create artificial hurdles to fleece them.
- Tragedy in Kogi: Police Corporal Allegedly Kills Female Colleague, Takes Own Life After Reported Relationship Crisis
A tragic shooting incident involving two serving police officers has… - Tottenham Stun Chelsea at Stamford Bridge as Palmer Sees Red and Maddison Suffers Fresh Injury Blow
Tottenham Hotspur delivered a statement victory over London rivals Chelsea…
Tunji-Ojo disclosed that the App had been designed to take care of every requirement for the issuance of Nigerian passport and make it seamless for applicants to obtain the travelling document within record time.
The minister announced that with effect from April next year, passport production will be centralized in Nigeria as no immigration attaché in any foreign mission would be allowed to approve visa issuance
