Nigeria Passport Validity Now 10 years
The Comptroller-General of Immigration (CGI), Muhammed Babandede, has announced a directive from President Muhammadu Buhari, increasing the validity of Nigerian passport issued in the country from 5 to 10 years.
The Immigration Boss made the announcement Thursday during a visit to the Ikoyi passport office in Lagos.
He said the president also approved improved security features and quality for the passport booklets.
“He has approved 10-year validity for passports which is great news. When the report comes, passports will be valid for 10 years which is great news especially for adults from the age of 18 and above.
“Though people will pay more, if they can pay more and get the booklets quickly, it’s good with improved security for 10 years validity. They would pay more but the document would be available, that’s good.
“Ten years after the enrolment of the e-passport system, we need to improve the security features. You can’t keep documents for 10 years without seeing decreased values in them, so we are improving the security features which would raise the standards of the passports,” he said.
By late 2016, the Buhari administration was considering extending validity period for international passports from its current five to 10 years.
The Comptroller General of Immigration Muhammad Babandede told reporters then that Nigerians should expect an announcement on the policy changes in the coming months.
“We have submitted a memo to the president and we believe we’ll get a positive response to that soon,” Mr. Babandede said.
The Immigration chief said the review was the government’s response to several months of complaints from Nigerians and other foreign elements who said the five-year validity period is too short.
Citizens demanded that the NIS should reverse to the old policy that Nigeria had in place before 2007. Back then, the Nigerian passport was valid for 10 years with additional five years validity for renewal.
“We have received complaints that passports only take five years,” Mr. Babandede said. “The international community is not happy, wondering why passports will only be five years.”
“They’re saying it should be 10 years and we’re already considering that. We need to make sure that we have age validity expansion.”
He said the current validity period was unnecessary for people above 18 years because they’re already fully grown and rarely wear a totally different look.
“For example, in some places in the world, they say if you’re below the age of 18, you can have five-year validity passport. But if you’re above the age of 18, you can have 10-year validity because your physical features may not change again within 10 years,” Mr. Babandede said.