The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has announced that the online passport application feature that he promised in October will be launched in the next week.
He made this statement on Tuesday on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he had previously assured Nigerians that the feature would be available from December.
He said that the technology was almost ready and had been tested successfully.
“In fact, we’ve done the testing and we should be going live in the next one week or thereabout. As I said, that will ensure that Nigerians, all they need to do in an immigration centre, a passport centre, is just biometrics, just to take your fingerprints, that’s all,” he said.
He confirmed that Nigerians would be able to complete their application from their homes, including uploading their passport photos and documents.
“We have gone beyond that. In fact, we’ve gone through it. We would have gone live about two weeks ago but I saw some errors when they came to do a presentation and I said, ‘You know this cannot be this,” he said.
He explained that the feature would balance national security and convenience for the applicants.
“There must be a middle point. You cannot bring discomfort on the basis of enhancement of security. You must find a meeting point of both security and comfort,” he said.
He also reiterated his promise that by February 2024, all Nigerian international airports would have e-gates.
“Once you’re Nigerian and you’re coming to Nigeria, you will have no business seeing an immigration officer, except if you’re a person of interest,” he said.
