The Federal Government has defended the upward review of Nigerian passport fees to N100,000 and N200,000.
FG recently revealed that the decision will help to sustain quality, reduce corruption, and guarantee the timely delivery of travel documents.
Recall that the Nigeria Immigration Service, in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer, ACI AS Akinlabi, on Thursday, announced that from September 1, 2025, applications made within Nigeria will attract new fees of N100,000 for the 32-page, five-year validity passport and N200,000 for the 64-page, 10-year validity passport.
Reacting to the criticism that has trailed the announcement, the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said that the aim is to make sure Nigerians receive their passport one week after enrolment.
Emphasising that timely delivery is very important, he reiterated the need to also deliver quality passports that will reflect Nigeria’s integrity as a country.
“Our target is very clear: within one week of enrolment, every Nigerian should have their passport in hand. Not just delivering quickly, but delivering quality passports that reflect our integrity as a nation,” he said.
He further noted that the new system will eliminate long delays and extortion that once forced Nigerians to wait up to seven months or pay as much as N200,000 to fast-track processing.
The minister concluded by saying that it is his responsibility to ensure that anyone carrying a Nigerian passport is truly Nigerian.
“The system that we inherited that had six months backlog which we were able to clear in two and a half weeks. Nigerians will apply for passports and wait endlessly, or be asked to pay hundreds of thousands of naira.
My own daughter had that bad experience. Even when I was chairman of the House Committee on NDDC, my daughter wanted passport, it was a problem. I had to pay hundreds of thousands to be able to get a passport for my daughter, a 12-year-old girl. That era is over.
With this facility, we can print five times more passports than we currently need. Once you enrol, it doesn’t take us more than 24 hours to vet. Printing capacity is no longer our problem.
Some PCOs had so much power that they could decide not to approve or not to print a passport until they were settled. That abuse of power ends now.
We realised that the best way to cut corruption is to remove human contact to the barest minimum. Passport approval will no longer rest with PCOs. My responsibility is not for them to like me — it is to deliver efficiency. Let Nigerians be happy.
My responsibility is not just to make passports available, but to ensure that anybody carrying it is a Nigerian. If you are not a Nigerian, you cannot carry it. It’s about our national integrity,” he added.
