No fewer than N1.9 million passports have been issued to Nigerians between January 2021 and June 2022, federal government disclosed.
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said a total of 1.3 million were issued in 2021 with no fewer 650,000 booklets have been collected by Nigerians as of June 2022.
Aregbesola who spoke at the commissioning of the Enhanced Passport Production Centre in Port Harcourt, on Tuesday stated that there is no longer shortage of booklets in the country.
In a statement by his Media Adviser Sola Fasure, Aregbesola said enough booklets had been distributed across the various centres nationwide.
The statement partly read, “We have left no stone unturned in our quest to make passports available to Nigerians. Last year alone, we provided 1.3 million passports to Nigerians. As of today, there is no booklet shortage in Nigeria.
“As of the second quarter of this year (in June), the NIS has provided 645,000 passports out of the 750,000 applications received. To address the challenge of the backlog, we have sent 11,000 booklets to Ikoyi, 11,000 to Alausa and 8,000 to FESTAC centres in Lagos.
“We have also sent sufficient booklets to all the centres nationwide to address this challenge. There is, therefore, no excuse again for delay and non-issuance within a reasonable period,” Minister told the cheering public.