By Promise Dera
Copyright nigerianeye
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has unveiled a state-of-the-art Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at its headquarters in Abuja, capable of producing up to 5,000 passports daily—a dramatic leap from the previous capacity of 250–300 booklets across multiple decentralised centres nationwide.
The launch, announced on Thursday by Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, marks the first centralisation of passport production in the agency’s 62-year history since its establishment in 1963.
Previously, production was fragmented across 96 centres in Nigeria and abroad, leading to inefficiencies, backlogs, and vulnerabilities in quality control.
The new facility replaces this outdated model with a unified, automated system aligned with global best practices adopted by countries like the United States, United Kingdom, France, India, and Bangladesh.
“This is a historic and game-changing development,” Tunji-Ojo declared during an inspection tour of the centre, emphasising its role in President Bola Tinubu’s broader reform agenda for efficient service delivery and national identity management.
He highlighted that the centre’s high-speed machines can personalise over 1,000 passports per hour, enabling the NIS to clear daily demands in just four to five hours of operation.
Approved passports will now be ready for collection within 24 hours, with full delivery to applicants across the country within one week—slashing previous processing times from weeks to mere days.
The minister also revealed complementary reforms, including the unification of Nigeria’s two existing passport series into a single regime, supported by technical partner Iris Smart Technologies, and the country’s full migration to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Public Key Directory (PKD).
This upgrade ensures seamless global authentication of Nigerian travel documents, bolstering their international credibility and reducing fraud risks.
Tunji-Ojo noted that the initiative addresses long-standing complaints from Nigerians about endless backlogs, manual processes, and unreliable service.
“The era of backlogs and manual personalisation is over. Nigerians can now expect faster, more reliable service as we strengthen the integrity of our travel documents,” he stated.
Over 200,000 pending applications have already been cleared as part of the rollout, with the system designed to eliminate future delays through enhanced automation and optimisation.
The NIS has urged applicants to apply through official channels via its website (passport.immigration.gov.ng) to take advantage of the streamlined process, assuring that the centre’s operations will commence immediately to meet surging demand.
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