Nigerian Passport With 10-Year Validity Effective December – NIS

The Comptroller-General, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mr Mohammed Babandede, has assured that the service will begin the issuance of Nigerian passports with 10 -year validity period in December, 2018.

Babandede, made this development known when he visited the governor of Oyo State Gov. Abiola Ajimobi.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the immigration boss and some senior officers were in Ibadan for the first International Conference on Border In-Transition at the University of Ibadan.

The Comptroller-General who stated that the new passport will run concurrently with the old one, added that the new one has new features that would make it durable.

“We thank President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the new passport with 10 years validity.

“We have also repositioned and improved on our services as directed by the president,” he said.

Babandede said NIS had also improved accessibility to visa through the introduction of Visa-on-Arrival for immigrants whose country was without an embassy.

“We have initiated the centralization of Temporary Work Permit for immigrants who are in the country for a temporary assignment as well as made it easy for women to do change of name across the states.

“We have also introduced forward-front-border patrol to curtail activities of smugglers and criminals within the border areas.

“We will continue to ensure adequate security of the border and country at large,” he said.

The NIS boss further revealed that the President has ordered that bushes be patrolled unlike the street patrol system which operated before his administration.

Governor Ajimobi in his response admonished the agency to keep a keen watch on the nation border to ensure that the peace of the country is not compromised further.

Ajimobi, who was represented by his deputy, Chief Moses Adeyemo, admonished the NIS boss to initiate policies towards checking illegal immigrants into the country.

He urged them to improve on border policing and ensure recruitment of credible people into the service.