Muhammad Babandede, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), has announced the extension of the deadline for the application of passports.
The postponement of new passport applications was announced yesterday, June 1 by the Service’s Public Relations Officer, Amos Okpu, after Babandede made the announcement at the NIS headquarters in Abuja during a media chat.
According to the report, the comptroller general said that “a huge number of applicants are already turning up to collect their passports across issuing centers and this is causing some forms of congestion”. So the new date will now be June 8, 2021.
However, the Service will still not accommodate new applications so as to reduce the crowd that throngs the office due to Covid-19, and to ensure compliance with all protocols.
The NIS had announced on May 17, 2021, that it was halting applications and processing of new passports until May 31, 2021, but that has changed now as the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has been reported to have also extended the beginning of the new passport regime by one week. This means that applications for new passports will now begin by June 8, 2021, as against June 1, 2021, which was announced previously.
So the extra one week will be used to attend to applicants for collection, clear all the remaining backlogs, and also improve the systems automation for the takeoff of the new passport application that will begin by the 8th of June 2021.
Muhammad Babandede assures Nigerians of full commitment and improved service delivery to all passport applicants.
