The Comptroller-General of Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammed Babandede, revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that the validity of passports issued in Nigeria, should be increased from five to 10 years.
Babandede, said this on Thursday when he visited the Ikoyi passport office in Lagos.
He said that extending the validity of the passport to ten years will also attract more pay, but will guarantee quick service delivery.
Noting they will also have to improve the security features which would raise the standards of the passports
He said Buhari also approved improved security features and quality for the passport booklets.
Stating: “He (Buhari) has approved 10-year validity for passports which is great news. When the report comes, passports will be valid for 10 years which is great news especially for adults from the age of 18 and above.
“Though people will pay more, if they can pay more and get the booklets quickly, it’s good with improved security for 10 years validity. They would pay more but the document would be available, that’s good.
“Ten years after the enrollment of the e-passport system, we need to improve the security features. You can’t keep documents for 10 years without seeing decreased values in them, so we are improving the security features which would raise the standards of the passports.
“And we will ensure it is done before the end of this year because the booklet has to change.”
Recall that in November 2016, the Immigration boss announced that Federal Government was considering extending the validity period for international passports from five to 10 years.
He said the review was the government’s response to several months of complaints from Nigerians and other foreign elements, who said the five-year validity period is too short.
And that the citizens demanded that the NIS should reverse to the old policy that Nigeria had in place before 2007.
Adding: “We have submitted a memo to the president and we believe we’ll get a positive response to that soon.”