The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has announced plans to establish more passport offices in Lagos to reduce the burden of obtaining passports by applicants, following consistent complaints about delays and long queues at passport offices in the state.
The Comptroller-General of NIS, Muhammad Babandede, disclosed this at a stakeholders’ meeting held in Lagos. He added that the move was also geared towards ensuring the safety of passport applicants who often fall victim to touts who hang around passport offices extorting money from them.
Babandede noted that the NIS had already secured locations for the new passport offices, which would be equipped with modern facilities that can handle a large number of applicants at a time. He added that the NIS would deploy more personnel to the new offices to ensure efficient service delivery.
The proposed plan has been welcomed by many Nigerians who have experienced the challenges of obtaining passports in Lagos. Some described the situation as “chaotic” and expressed hope that the new passport offices would help to alleviate their predicament.
However, others have called on the NIS to ensure that the passport application process is made more accessible and less cumbersome for everyone, regardless of their social or economic status. They also urged the NIS to address the issue of corruption within the agency, which has been identified as one of the factors contributing to the inefficiency of the passport application process in Nigeria.
The decision by the NIS to establish more passport offices in Lagos is a step in the right direction towards addressing the challenges of passport applicants in Nigeria. It is hoped that this move will not only decongest existing passport offices but also promote efficiency and transparency in the passport application process. However, more needs to be done to ensure that the system is revamped to adequately cater to the needs of all applicants, without discrimination.
