No fewer than 32, 462 Nigerians who intend to travel out of the country applied for passports and uploaded their documents from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) site between January 8 and 21, 2024.
The comptroller general of Immigration Service, Ms Caroline Adepoju, disclosed this yesterday to journalists during her visit to the Ikoyi and Alausa passport offices in Lagos.
Of the number, she said 15,113 applications had been approved for biometric capture and production, which is fifty per cent of the total application.
Of the 32,462 applications, she further said 11,505 were awaiting approval, while 3,406 who made payments were yet to book appointments.
The comptroller added that 1,438 applications were queried for various reasons.
Giving the percentage breakdown of the figures, she said: “50 per cent of the total applications have been successfully approved for biometric capture, production and issuance, 35 per cent awaits approval, 11 per cent made payments but yet to book appointments and only four per cent of total applications were queried.”
She added: “When queries are successfully answered, the applications return to the queue and are subsequently approved for biometric acquisition, production and issuance.”
On the introduction of the introduction of the automation of passport applications, she said: “The major difference now is that supporting documents are now uploaded online. It is a research-based decision and we have been recording successes.
“As of (yesterday), we have only recorded four per cent rejection of uploaded documents which may be due to errors on the side of the applicant. But our help desk is operational 24/7.
“The NIS, our technical partners, service providers and other stakeholders worked together with the minister of interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to come up with this reform on the automation of passport process which has been in place since the inception of the issuance of enhanced e-passport in 2020,” Adepoju said.
She further said the automation of passport application was aimed, among other benefits, at easing the application process and reducing human interface which had been a major complaint from applicants who had been extorted by touts during application.
