The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has inaugurated the enhanced e-Passport Central Production Centre for Duste, Jigawa state and Dawakin-kudu in Kano state, in continuation of the efforts aimed at bringing improved passport processing services closer to Nigerians.
Inaugurating the facility at Farm Centre passport office Kano, the Governor of the state, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, congratulated the Service on the many achievements recorded in recent times especially for being the first country in Africa to roll out the enhanced e- passport.
The Governor, who was represented at the event by the Kano State Commissioner of Budget, Alhaji Danazumi Grazo, appreciated NIS for siting the center within the ancient Kano city.
In his address, the comptroller General of Immigration Service, Isah Idris, reassured Nigerians that the passport reform process was still work in progress.
Represented at the event by the Assistant Comptroller General in charge of standard passport, Sadat Hassan, the CGIS said he was particularly happy with the positive feedback from Nigerians which showed that people appreciated the reforms.
He stated that the NIS was committed to issuing passports within the stipulated timeframe of three to six weeks post-biometric capture, where there were no technical hitches or application irregularities such as inconsistencies in the NIN of applicants.
The CGIS explained that NIN remained mandatory for the issuance of enhanced e-passport and the information in both documents must match.
He said: “I wish to reiterate our official position that passport applicants should please avoid using third parties but go online and make their applications and payments themselves by logging into the official website passport.immigration.gov.ng. We shall continue to deal with the activities of persons who may want to sabotage the reform process.”
Idris asserted that his management team remained focused on improving service delivery with particular emphasis on efficient and seamless passport administration, border security and welfare of officers and men of the Service.
He took the opportunity to advise members of the public on the activities of racketeering syndicates who circulate fake recruitment portals of their own.
He said: “The NIS always publish recruitment adverts in national dailies.”
Dignitaries at the event included the Zonal Coordinator (Zone B), ACG Zainab Lawal; Kano State Command Comptroller, Mustapha Ahmed; State Command Comptrollers Zone B; the Executive Director of IRIS SMART, Dr Felix Fatusin; and Heads of sister security agencies in Kano.
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