The Nigeria Immigration Service has ended passport production at multiple centres, adopting a single centralised system for the first time in its 62-year history.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, announced this on Thursday during an inspection of the new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He said Nigeria had never operated a central passport production system since the establishment of NIS in 1963, describing the shift as a milestone reform.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
According to him, old machines could only produce between 250 and 300 passports daily, but the new system has the capacity to process 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, noting that the new system would transform passport processing.
The minister said the government was already working towards reducing passport delivery time from two weeks to one week, backed by automation and optimisation.
He stressed that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and strengthen the integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
“This is a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving efficiency and total passport system reform,” Tunji-Ojo said, adding that the development aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda.
