Comptroller General of Immigration Service, Isah Jere Idris
Immigration Service denies charging discriminatory passport fees for North, South centres
Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has denies reports making the rounds that it is charging discriminatory fees for the processing of the international passport.
Reports had emerged claiming that the NIS personnel were charging discriminatory fees for processing of the international passport documents from its northern and southern centres.
However, responding to the claims, Comptroller General of the NIS, Isah Jere Idris, in a statement posted via the Service’s verified Twitter handle (@nigimmigration), Thursday, described the allegations as ‘not only laughable but also very pedestrian.’
Jere explained that the NIS was in the process of ‘steadily migrating all its Passport Centres to the enhanced ePassport regime,’ which, he added has already commenced at its various processing centres across the country.
“The attention of the Comptroller General Isah Jere Idris has been drawn to some stories about discriminatory Passport charges for Passport applicants in the North and South of the country.
“The report is not only laughable but also very pedestrian.
“The Passports we issue are for Nigerians irrespective of where they live including those in the Diaspora.
“What we do have are two Passport regimes that are running concurrently. They are the electronic Passport and enhanced electronic Passport.
“The latter is an improvement of the former. It is a product of the latest technology in Passport issuance. “It has improved security features, a poly carbonate data page and comes in three categories of 32-page five-year validity (N25,000), 64-page five- year (N35000) and 64-page ten-year validity (N70000).
“It was unveiled sometime in 2019 & seven Passport Centres including Ikoyi, Abuja, Alausa, FESTAC, Port Harcourt, Kano & Gwagwalada were immediately migrated to the enhanced Passport regime then.
“Meanwhile, the electronic Passport is the usual one we have been issuing since the introduction of ePassport in 2007. The fee chargeable range from N8750-N17800 depending on age of the applicant and category of Passport.
“At the moment, the Service is steadily migrating all its Passport Centres to the enhanced ePassport regime.
“To this effect, all the Centres in South-South, South-West & South-East including our Desks in the UK & USA have been fully migrated to the enhanced regime.
“In the work plan, Centres in the North-West, North-East, Canada & others are getting ready for migration to the enhanced Passport regime very soon,” Jere said.
He, however, stressed that ‘there is absolutely no discriminatory Passport fees anywhere on our platform,’ just as he advised ‘those peddling such empty narrative to get educated by this clarification please.’
