The Nigerian government announced the introduction of a new international e-passport at the State House in Abuja Nigeria on the 15th of January 2019. The passport will be valid for 10 years and will come with an enhanced security-self-tracking application and express centers for urgent application. They mentioned that the new passport will be available to the public from February 2019.
The 10 years validity electronic Passport has been unveiled today at the State House Abuja in a ceremony that saw the issuance of the document to the first family, His Excellency, Mr. President and his Vice. pic.twitter.com/1qhOoeaTPM
— Nigeria Immigration (@nigimmigration) January 15, 2019
The Immigration Service later postponed the issuance of the new 10-year enhanced e-passport to the 29th of April 2019.
On the agreed date, James Sunday the public relations officer of the NIS announced that registration has commenced for the e-passport. The new passport will bear the details of the applicants as indicated by National Identity Management Commission and about 720 applicants will be captured in a day.
The PRO explained that it is now mandatory for passport applicants to have a National Identity Number (NIN), considering that it is a criterion for the e-passport issuance.
While the cost of the 32-page five-year standard passport stands at N25, 000 and the 64-page five-year standard passport costs N35,000, the new 64-page 10-year standard e-passport will cost N70,000.
This amount was first mentioned in January and Nigerian citizens took to their twitter page to react.
See also: MTN Nigeria goes Public as Part of NSE’s Requirement for Listing
Only God knows when the masses of this country will enjoy anything about this country. How can NIS charge us four times (70,000 naira) the current rate of Standard passport which is 17,000 naira, all in the name of 64 pages, 10 years validity and 25 new features, it's Very bad!
— Simeon (@Oy_Simeon) January 15, 2019
They gave us pvc for free even encourage us to go and collect it but charge us 70k to have passport
— bakare dayo warner (@cooldayor) January 16, 2019
The e-passport is made from poly-carbonate technology which reduces incidence of damage.
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