The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the extension of validity of Nigeria’s international passport to 10 years from five years.
Also with the approval, the Federal Government can now enter bilateral agreement with other countries for 10 years visa.
Announcing it, the Comptroller-General Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), said “President has approved a lot of reforms, one of the reforms is 10 years validity for the passport for adults from the age of 18 upward, this is great news for Nigerians in the diaspora, because they have been yearning for this, the national assembly has submitted it several times that the passport be 10 years like other parts of the world, the president has approved that,”
“I know that in the past month we had issues with shortage of the booklet, but that has been sorted out, the best solution is to produce the passport here in the country and we are doing the process, passport has to be produced in Nigeria, there will be a passport factory in Nigeria,” Babandede added.
Currently, Nigeria is believed to be paying over N24billion to firms in Malaysia, Netherlands and South Africa for production of its international passports.
The passport booklets are currently being produced by Iris Smart Technology Nigeria (ISTL) through its parent company, Iris Corporation, based in Malaysia.
According to BusinessDay passport offices across Nigeria issue out 1.248 million passports per year.
New passports will henceforth contain the national ID number, as well as the NIM number of the holder.
