The Nigeria Immigration Service -NIS, has denied issuing discriminatory passport fees after revelations have shown that charges differ depending on the states Nigerians are applying from, with the Southern areas being more expensive, compared to the Northern areas.
It was gathered that Ekiti State residents are charged N25,000 for a Standard Passport Booklet of 32 Pages for the age range of 0-17 years, but the same Passport costs N8,750 for residents in Kaduna State.
In a statement clarifying the differences in the price on Thursday, NIS stated that the two types of passports were issued to applicants depending on their states, revealing that an electronic passport was issued to the North and an enhanced electronic passport was issued to the South. According to the NIS, the enhanced electronic passport is pricier than the electronic passport, hence, the cost varies between the southern and northern regions. The decision was critiqued by Nigerians on Twitter, with several people alluding that placing the two regions on separate platforms increased the cost burden of people living in the South.
According to the statement, the service stated that the electronic Passport is the usual one we have been issuing since the introduction of ePassport in 2007. The fee chargeable ranges from N8750-N17800 and is dependent on the age of the applicant and category of Passport. At the moment, the Service is gradually migrating all its Passport Centres to the enhanced ePassport regime.
“We, therefore, would like to reiterate that there are absolutely no discriminatory Passport fees anywhere on our platform. We advise those peddling such narrative to get educated by this clarification please.” the NIS statement finished.
