Home delivery of passports begins June, says Interior Minister

Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has said home delivery of passports is set to begin in June 2024.

Tunji-Ojo made the announcement on Friday when he inspected the electronic gates at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport’s new terminal in Abuja,

The minister, however, said the passports delivery will not include every location to avoid overloading and system damage, stating that the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) would begin the exercise in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Abuja.

For Nigerians in the diaspora, he said the home delivery service would initially launch in the United States and the United Kingdom, with preliminary testing to ensure its effectiveness.

According to him, the delay in implementing home delivery was as a result of a lack of data centres, noting that the NIS had been relying on a private company’s data centre.

“We have completed the whole solution but when we came on board, we realised that the data centre was not really there. We were leveraging on a private company data centre and we appreciate them for that assistance. We think that it is better to create a permanent solution to problems rather than quick fixes.

“We could have done it in February but we had to build our data centre from scratch to be able to keep the integrity of our data and national security intact. This is more important. It is disgraceful that NIS is 61 years old and NIS is a custodian of biometric data of Nigeria and we believe that NIS should be in charge of the data of Nigeria.

“It is not acceptable that this data is domiciled in a third party and that is why we have been able to do this,” he said.

Speaking further, he said the data centre has been constructed and the passport delivery issue has been resolved.

“It is about national security and I can assure you that It is comparable with anyone you can find anywhere in the world.

“We have built the data centre, sorted the passport delivery solution and done the final presentation in terms of technology deliverables and the tracking solution which will all be embedded in the application we have so we do not create multiple lines of failure.”