Weeks after the Federal Government announced a 100 percent increase in the cost of travel passports; the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has commenced local production of the vital travel documents.
The move follows the commissioning of a centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS headquarters in Abuja, ending over six decades of reliance on multiple production centres across the country.
Under the new regime, all Nigerian passports will now be processed and printed in Abuja, with authorities promising improved efficiency, reduced delays, and tighter security.
The Comptroller General of Immigration, in a recent briefing, said the centralised system has capacity to produce between 4,500 and 5,000 passports daily, compared to the 250–300 processed per location under the old distributed system.
Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the minister of Interior also posted in his verified X handle, thus:
“With these strategic infrastructural investment, which did not cost a kobo to the government, the NIS can now personalise over 1,000 passports in one hour.
“To put it into perspective, long before this development, the service can only record an average of 250–300 passports daily. But, today, under 5 work hours, the service can now deliver about 4500 to 5000 passports.
“As a major milestone, for the first time in 62 years of the service, this centralisation puts an end to the production of our passports at multiple centres across the world. It is equally important to note that this development will help us deliver passports faster to applicants and drastically cut down on waiting time in our bid to put an end to needless delays that once riddled the passport acquisition process.
“This centralisation will curb corruption, streamline operations, and ensure Nigerians receive passports within shorter timeframes,” NIS official told Techeconomy, noting that turnaround time could now be reduced to as little as one week once the system stabilises.
The announcement comes on the heels of new passport fees introduced on September 1, which doubled the cost of the 32-page, five-year booklet to ₦100,000, while the 64-page, 10-year booklet now costs ₦200,000.
The Federal Government defended the hike, arguing it was necessary to fund the new infrastructure, sustain local production, and end the long-standing challenges of scarcity and middlemen exploitation.
However, public reaction has been mixed, with many Nigerians decrying the sharp increase in costs amid prevailing economic hardship, while others welcomed the promise of faster and more transparent processing.
Industry watchers say the success of the new local printing initiative will depend on how efficiently the NIS manages logistics, distribution, and service delivery across the states.
