The Federal Government has announced that the Nigeria Immigration Service will begin producing 24,000 passports daily once the current backlog of applications has been cleared.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, during a visit to his office in Abuja on Friday by a delegation from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes.

According to a statement by the director of Press at the ministry, Ajibola Afonja, the minister stated that around 97,000 passports out of the total backlog of 200,000 have been successfully processed and resolved.

“He further cited an example of the ongoing reforms in the NIS for passport issuance; he confirmed that “as of this morning (Friday), about 97,000 passport applications have been cleared, and he assured Nigerians that 24,000 passports would be produced in a day when the backlogs are cleared.”

He also sought the support of the UNODC in providing skills acquisition training to inmates in Nigerian correctional facilities.