The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has given reasons why the Nigerian Passports seem to be cheaper in the Northern part of the country than in the Southern part.
This comes after the agency faced controversy on social media after it was discovered that southern Nigerians paid more to process their passports than their northern counterparts.
When compared to applicants from Ekiti State, the average applicant from Kaduna State would pay far less, according to a quick check on the immigration website.
For a 32-page passport with a five-year validity, an applicant in Kaduna between the ages of 0 and 17 is required to pay a total of N10,750, according to one of the photographs that went viral online on Thursday, September 1, 2022.
However, an applicant from Ekiti state requesting for a passport with the same specifications is expected to pay N25,000 booklet fee alone.
As shown in the screenshots shared online, this imbalance affects a number of states in both the northern and southern regions of the nation, leading some Nigerians to accuse agency of discrimination.
The statement credited to the Comptroller General of the agency, Isah Jere Idris, described the allegation of discrimination as laughable and pedestrian because the agency doesn’t consider the applicants’ state of residence before issuing passports.
He said the reason for the difference in price was because the NIS is currently running two Passport regimes concurrently – electronic Passport and enhanced electronic Passport.
The agency explained that, while some passport centres like Ikoyi, Festac, Kano, Port Harcourt, Gwagwalada were immediately migrated to the enhanced electronic Passport regime, most of the states in the north are still operating on the electronic Passport regime, hence the price disparity.
NIS FULL STATEMENT:
“WE DON’T HAVE ANY DISCRIMINATORY PASSPORT CHARGES The attention of the Comptroller General Isah Jere Idris has been drawn to some stories about discriminatory Passport charges for Passport applicants in the North and South of the country.
“The report is not only laughable but also very pedestrian. The Passports we issue are for Nigerians irrespective of where they live including those in the diaspora. What we do have are two Passport regimes that are running concurrently.
“They are the electronic Passport and enhanced electronic Passport. The latter is an improvement of the former. It is a product of the latest technology in Passport issuance. It has improved security features, a polycarbonate data page and comes in three categories of 32-page five-year validity (N25,000), 64-page five- year (N35000) and 64-page ten-year validity (N70000).
“It was unveiled sometime in 2019 & seven Passport Centres including Ikoyi, Abuja, Alausa, FESTAC, Port Harcourt, Kano & Gwagwalada were immediately migrated to the enhanced Passport regime then. Meanwhile, the electronic Passport is the usual one we have been issuing since the introduction of ePassport in 2007.
“The fee chargeable range from N8750-N17800 depending on age of the applicant and category of Passport. At the moment, the Service is steadily migrating all its Passport Centres to the enhanced ePassport regime.
“To this effect, all the Centres in South-South, South-West & South-East including our Desks in the UK & USA have been fully migrated to the enhanced regime. In the work plan, Centres in the North-West, North-East, Canada & others are getting ready for migration to the enhanced Passport regime very soon.
We therefore, like to reiterate that there is absolutely no discriminatory Passport fees anywhere on our platform. We advise those peddling such empty narrative to get educated by this clarification please.”
