The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) is yet to commence the issuance of the new enhanced electronic passport in states after months of launch by the presidency.
President Buhari launched the passport on January 16, 2019, but the NIS immediately announced on their website that the rollout had been rescheduled to begin on April 29, 2019.
The Enhanced E-Passport is part of the new reforms approved by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
It is a product of intensive review of the existing e-passport booklet which has been in circulation for over 10 years and has only five-year validity period.
Though the new e-passport had been launched in Abuja and Lagos, only the NIS headquarters and the Ikoyi office of the NIS are currently issuing the document.
The Gwagwalada office of the NIS in Abuja and its office in Alausa, Lagos still issue only the old passport.
The service said the process of issuing the passport was being delayed to finalize the integration of the National Identity Number (NIN) with the new passport. It also attributed the delay to its new policy direction.
NIS spokesman Sunday James had in a communication some days ago said the service would roll out the new passport booklets in Kano before the end of September; and in Alausa, Lagos, thereafter.
He said: “What we are doing now is just pilot project. It will be replicated in all states of the federation afterward. We can’t roll out in all the states now because we still have the old passports in stock and we can’t just dump them.
“They were produced with taxpayers’ money and in line with this administration’s policy thrust, there is no room for wastage,” he said.
James assured that the service would start issuing the new passports in all states of the federation in no distant time.
Meanwhile, the new the 64 page 10-year validity e-passport, according to the NIS website, is only for adults (18+). But the 32 page 5-year validity and 64 page 5-year validity will serve both adults and minors.