The Nigeria High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ambassador Sarafa Isola, has expressed delight at the introduction of the enhanced Nigerian e-passport.
He predicted that physical contact with passport issuance would be phased out sooner rather than later, and that the enhanced e-passport would take its place.
This was stated by Isola during the launch of the Enhanced e-passport on Tuesday at the Nigerian Mission in London’s Tafida Hall.
Crowd control, he says, is one of the main reasons for the introduction of the enhanced e-passport, and it is preferable to the old system.
“For your passport requests, we will deal with the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) portals online.”
“The only thing that will require you to interact with anyone regarding passport issuance will be the enrollment of your biometric features.”
“We want to spread it as much as possible to wherever there are a significant number of Nigerians, so that the need for people to come here for that aspect of it will be greatly reduced, if not completely eliminated,” Isola told the scores of Nigerians present at the rollout ceremony.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the enhanced e-passport rollout follows a similar exercise in Nigeria in January 2019.
Before launching the enhanced e-passport overseas, the Nigeria Immigration Service decided to fine-tune the processing and production of the enhanced e-passport.
Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, noted in a goodwill message to the High Commission in London that the rollout was being carried out for the first time outside of Nigeria.
“As a result, it has a special significance, not only for the mission and the immigration service, but also for all Nigerians living in the UK,” the minister explained.
Similarly, Alhaji Idris Jibbi, the acting Comptroller General of NIS, expressed delight at the rollout of the enhanced e-passport, as well as the synergy and support enjoyed by the immigration desk in the mission.
Jibbi, who delivered the event’s opening remarks, stated that the rollout was successful due to the support of the Minister of Interior.
“All passports issued at other issuing centers in Nigeria and at foreign missions are valid travel documents.”
“This is until we are able to fully transition to the enhanced e-passport regime and begin issuance across all domestic and international centers.”
“According to our other reports, the immigration desk of this mission issued 45,389 standard passports in 2018; 44,861 in 2019; and 28,046 in 2020 – as a result of COVID-19.”
“These statistics show that this mission is our number one passport issuing center outside of the country,” Jibbi said.
He went on to say that Nigeria would continue to prioritize the distribution of adequate passport booklets, taking into account the large Nigerian population abroad.
Meanwhile, the High Commission stated that the National Identification Number was a major requirement for the issuance of the enhanced e-Passport (NIN).
It listed 17 NIN Enrolment Centres in five UK cities, including Aberdeen, Glasgow, Leicester, London, and Southampton.
The National Identification Management Commission (NIMC) has granted these cities permission to process NIN for Nigerians in the United Kingdom.
The High Commission, on the other hand, stated that e-passport applicants who have already applied should be given priority until the last applicant is served.
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