Nigeria has joined the ranks of advanced countries, like the United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (U.S.A.), and France, in passport production.
The country now boasts the capacity to produce 5,000 passports per day.
The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, gave the credit for achieving the feat to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his vision, as encapsulated in the Renewed Hope Agenda.
The minister said Nigeria would no longer experience passport delays or backlogs, as they can now obtain the documents within 24 hours.
Tunji-Ojo, who undertook an inspection tour of the newly completed Centralised Passports Personalisation Centre at the headquarters of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) yesterday in Abuja, said the facility was a landmark achievement for Nigeria.
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He was accompanied by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, and the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mrs. Kemi Nandap, and other top government officials.
The minister described the centre as a major breakthrough in Nigeria’s passport reform initiative.
He said the project was the first of its kind in the 62-year history of the NIS.
Tunji-Ojo also described the centre as a “big win for the present administration and for Nigerians”.
The minister said it aligned Nigeria with advanced nations that have adopted a centralised passport personalisation system — a global best practice that guarantees quality, integrity, and efficiency.
He explained that the centre’s state-of-the-art infrastructure would revolutionise passport production, boost capacity from 250–300 booklets per machine daily to over 4,500 to 5,000 passports per day, with approved passports ready for collection within 24 hours.
“The era of backlogs and manual personalisation is over. Nigerians can now expect faster, more reliable service as we strengthen the integrity of our travel documents,” Tunji-Ojo said.
Reflecting on the key milestones of the reform programme, the minister listed migration to a single, uniform passport series, eliminating discrepancies between older versions and Nigeria’s full integration into the ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD) as key factors in ensuring global authentication of Nigerian passports.
He said the successful deployment of the new system across all passport issuing locations, including Nigerian missions abroad, was a significant feature that has made the Nigerian passport top-notch in the global arena