Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Minister of Interior, has promised Nigerians that the automation passport application process will begin the following week, while also noting that front offices in certain key locations across the United Kingdom have been scheduled for opening. The Minister during a live interview disclosed that the technology needed to be in place for the automation of passports is 99 percent done.
According to the minister, "We would have gone live about two weeks ago but I saw some errors when they came to do a presentation and I said, ‘You know this cannot be this.
"we’ve now done the testing and we should be going live in the next one week or thereabout.
As I said, that will ensure that Nigerians, all they need to do in an immigration center, a passport center, is just biometrics, just to take your fingerprints, that’s all."
The minister also addressed the concerns of Nigerians in the diaspora over difficulties renewing their passports at foreign missions.
“I think there are only two places where we have this challenge now, realistically. I think in the UK, precisely, London, and in the US — precisely, in New York. And that has to do with the concentration of Nigerians.
“There is no quick fix. But we have ensured Nigerians that by February next year, we will have opened our front offices such that we’ll have front offices in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff in Wales, and Scotland.
“So, once we have this, definitely, it will reduce the stress of Nigerians, it will reduce the waiting period, and of course, it will bring efficiency into the whole passport procurement system.”
Before leaving the interview, he promised that by February 2024, all Nigerian international airports would have e-gates.