The Federal Government has explained that its recent decision to increase Nigerian passport fees to ₦100,000 and ₦200,000 was aimed at ensuring faster delivery and eliminating entrenched corruption within the system.
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) had earlier announced that, effective September 1, 2025, applications for passports within Nigeria would now cost ₦100,000 for the 32-page, five-year validity passport, and ₦200,000 for the 64-page, 10-year validity passport.
Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said the reform was necessary to end a broken system where Nigerians often endured months of delays or were forced to pay exorbitant bribes to obtain passports.
He stated that the government’s target is for every Nigerian applicant to receive their passport within one week of enrollment. According to him, the focus is not only on speedy delivery but also on producing passports of high quality that reflect the country’s integrity.
The minister revealed that he personally experienced the failures of the old system. He recounted how, years ago, despite being Chairman of the House Committee on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), he struggled to secure a passport for his daughter. Tunji-Ojo disclosed that he was compelled to pay hundreds of thousands of naira to get the document for his then 12-year-old child, a situation he described as both frustrating and unacceptable.
He stressed that such practices, which forced ordinary Nigerians to either endure up to seven months of waiting or pay as much as ₦200,000 for fast-tracking, would no longer be tolerated.
The minister highlighted the role of the new centralized personalization centre, which he described as the largest of its kind in Africa. The facility, according to him, will ensure faster processing and stronger security measures. He said the system now has the capacity to print five times more passports than the country currently requires.
“Once you enrol, it does not take us more than 24 hours to vet your details. Printing capacity is no longer our problem,” Tunji-Ojo explained.
As part of the reforms, the minister announced that Passport Control Officers (PCOs) will no longer have the power to approve or delay applications. He said in the past, some officers abused their positions by deliberately withholding approvals until applicants offered bribes. That discretionary power, he emphasized, has now been removed.
“Some PCOs had so much power that they could decide not to approve or not to print a passport until they were settled. That abuse of power ends now,” Tunji-Ojo declared.
He argued that centralizing the approval process would eliminate such corruption and restore public confidence in Nigeria’s travel documents. The reforms, he added, would ensure that the passport issuance process becomes transparent, efficient, and fair to all Nigerians, regardless of social or political status.
The government maintained that while the upward review of fees may appear burdensome, it was a necessary step to overhaul the system, guarantee timely service delivery, and safeguard the integrity of Nigeria’s passport.
