Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior has denied allegations saying that he had plans to open Nigerian passport processing centers in banks and hotels country. He had made this known on Monday, November 7.
Prior reports had it that at least a thousand passport processing offices would be opened in bank branches and hotels nationwide, to hasten the issuance of the travel document to reduce the hardship experienced by passport applicants.
It was said that applicants would have to wait in long queues and more often than not, compelled to bribe passport officials to help facilitate their passport issuance.
Reacting to this report, the ministry said that the Minister did not directly or indirectly announce that passport front offices will be opened in hotels or banks. Instead, according to the statement, the minister was in alliance with the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS to reform the passport-obtaining process by improving the operations of the existing passport offices across Nigeria, with the end goal of eliminating corruption and incentivizing productivity.
