Why Nigerian passport booklets are scarce –Immigration

*The Nigerian Immigration Service claims the shortage of passport booklets results from the Foreign Exchange regulation policy of the Federal Government and ‘CBN’s refusal to grant access to Forex for importation of the booklets’

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has disclosed the lack of access to Foreign Exchange (Forex) is responsible for the relative scarcity of passport booklets in the country.

Idris Jere, Comptroller-General of the Immigration, who stated this at a public hearing organised by an ad-hoc committee of the Nigerian House of Representatives, I nthe National Assembly (NASS), Abuja, notes that the booklets are imported into the country.

Jere said the shortage resulted from the “foreign exchange regulation policy of the government and CBN’s refusal to grant access to forex for importation of the booklets.

“We generate forex from the sale of passports but we do not have access to buy the same booklet and that is a challenge for NIS.”

He also stated: “The factors responsible for the scarcity of passports include the inability to set up passport producing factory in Nigeria as its production is done abroad.

“The major seven components used for producing passports are sold in the international market and the assemblage and production are done in Malaysia.”

Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Honourable Minister for Interior, recently alleged that corrupt officials were undermining the efforts of the NIS at sanitising the passport application process in Nigeria.