THE Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has said over 140,000 international passport booklets remain unclaimed at its issuing offices across the country.
NIS Comptroller General, Isah Jere, disclosed this in Lagos on Thursday, and cited communication challenges and the use of third party agents to apply for international passports as the major factors for the increasing number of unclaimed passports.
He expressed worry over the trend, where Nigerians blame the service for not meeting their needs for the essential travel document.
Jere spoke through an Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) in the Migration Directorate of the service, Abdullahi Babangida Usman, head of Committee on Unclaimed Passports nationwide.
The NIS boss said efforts to reach the applicants for the unclaimed passports had become difficult due to either wrong or incomplete information supplied by third party players or contact details.
Speaking during a fact-finding visit to the Alausa Passport Office and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, both in Ikeja, Usman advised passport applicants who have either lost their slips or forgotten their appointment dates to check Immigration offices where they applied to pick up their passports.
The ACG, who spoke after inspecting activities at the Alausa office of the NIS, urged passport applicants to shun the use of third parties.
He said, “Why we are here is a directive from the Comptroller General. He has observed that there are a lot of uncollected passports in all the passport offices. We have about 100,000 unclaimed passports. Apart from that, we still have about 40,000 passports produced recently, all unclaimed.”
Usman stated that Lagos topped the list of uncollected passports with 40,000 produced but yet to be handed over to the owners.
“Of this numbers, 40,000 passports are for Lagos, while the remaining 60,000 is shared across the other states of the federation. This thing is causing us a worry because once you have done your own bit and people have not collected it, it causes a worry.
“It’s based on this that we are not there yet. That is why the CGI set up the committee to make sure the unclaimed passports are clearly given to the owners,” he added.
He continued, “We came into the field and were able to understand why some were not claimed. What are the reasons we have done the passports and collection has not happened? Before, production was the issue, due to various factors. But now, it is no longer an issue; collection has become the issue now.
“The reason passports are not collected is due to unreliable data – the addresses are incomplete, phone numbers and emails, which are used to quickly reach applicants, are usually not correct. So, communication cannot take place with the applicants, hence no feedback.
“This is because the third party uses his or her own phone number and email address. So, we cannot communicate with the applicants directly to tell them their passports are ready.”
At the MMIA Command, the Comptroller, Adeola Adesokan informed the ACG on what the command hope to accomplish in the new year. She gave a breakdown of what the command recorded in 2022 in the number of travellers recorded and the revenue generated.
According to her, the command last year, recorded 358,953 travellers from January to December and 51,608 passengers arriving via the Visa on Arrival (VOA).
Usman assured Nigerians that the ongoing passport reform process, especially the programme designed for those who returned from different parts of the globe during the Yuletide will be sustained, adding that the NIS intend to keep the two-week processing timeframe open to those in the Diaspora until January 31 when the programme will end.
“We reiterate our official position that passport applicants should please avoid using third parties but go online and make their applications and payments themselves at passport.immigration.gov.ng.
“We continue to deal with the challenges of recalcitrant touts as well as few bad eggs amongst the personnel who are bent on sabotaging the reform process,” he said.
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