The Nigeria Immigration Service NIS, have announced that from the month of January 2018, passports will not be issued to Nigerians who do not have a National Identification Number.
Mr. Mohammed Babandede, the Comptroller-General of the NIS, released the statement while speaking to state house correspondents after at the database harmonization committee.
This rule is said to apply to both first-time applicants and those that come for renewal.
“The biggest problem we are facing is that everybody is deploying his own technology; but harmonisation of data will solve that.
We have agreed that from January 1, 2018, anybody who is going to apply for the Nigerian passport, whether renewal or fresh application, must first have a National Identity Number.
Why we are doing this is that we want to ease process of doing business in Nigeria.
There is no need for you to go and have your biometrics captured by the NIMC and then you come and capture again with the Nigeria Immigration Service.
Once you give us your NIN, we will collect the biometrics from the NIMC and produce your passport.”
