The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has officially ended passport production at multiple centres across the country, moving to a single, centralised system for the first time since its establishment in 1963.
Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, announced this on Thursday during an inspection of the new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja. He described the development as a historic reform milestone in Nigeria’s passport system.
“For 62 years, Nigeria never operated a central passport production centre. Today, that changes,” Tunji-Ojo said.
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According to him, the new facility is “100 per cent ready” and will make Nigeria more productive and efficient in delivering passport services. While the old machines could only process between 250 and 300 passports daily, the new centralised system has the capacity to produce 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation. It’s a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria,” he said.
The minister also disclosed that the government is working to cut passport delivery timelines from two weeks to one week, stressing that automation and optimisation are central to achieving this target.
He explained that centralisation, in line with international best practices, would improve uniformity, enhance security, and strengthen the global integrity of Nigerian travel documents.
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“This reform is about bringing services closer to Nigerians, ensuring efficiency, and changing the entire passport production narrative,” Tunji-Ojo added.
He further noted that the initiative aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, which seeks to modernise public service delivery and enhance national identity management
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