May 21, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) is set to launch a passport home delivery service, in fulfilment of the federal government’s promise to ensure effective service delivery to Nigerians.
Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, made this known on Saturday, while unveiling a Front Desk office for the immigration service passport office in Auchi, Edo State.
Aregbesola said discussions are at the final stage with NIPOST, for speed mail service to deliver passports to applicants.
“Our current work schedule is that a fresh application would take six weeks after biometric data registration and three weeks for renewal. This is reasonable, competitive and in line with the global best practices.
“The challenge, however, is the waiting period at the application and data registration point. All applicants will be put in a queue, depending on the centre of their choice, to determine the registration date. Regrettably, it might take two months in some highly competitive centres where the application is very high. We have no control over this.
“We project that by the time we open more front offices like this, the waiting period will not be more than three days. Indeed, the more front offices we have, the less the waiting period. Our long-term plan will be to involve private operators who will provide the lounge for a fee, but the equipment and personnel will be provided by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS)”, he said.
