Bureau To Rid Corruption In Issuance Of Licenses 

Dr Joe Abbah Director-General, BPSR, told reporters on Monday in Abuja that the tracking would ensure efficient and effective service delivery. He also said, the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) is set to eliminate corruption in issuance of drivers’ license, passports and NAFDAC registration.

The tracking would also afford Nigerians to key into the actual prices of the services and commodities. The citizens would also be enlightened on how to follow the due process in acquiring these documents to make sure officials do not take undue advantage of their ignorant.

Dr. Abbah announced that the official price for renewing a three-year driver’s license is N6,350 while that of five years is N10,450.

“We have been working with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), National Immigration Service (NIS) the National Management Identity Management Commission (NIMC), National Agency for Food and Drug Control (NAFDAC) and other agencies to track their license processes.

“We are now having the actual prices of the drivers’ licence pasted at all licence processing centres.

“It is also available on the website of the FRSC to make sure officers do not take undue advantage of ignorant Nigerians.

“But for new drivers they need to make some extra payment and take lessons and all these attract separate fees, also depending on the states, some state governments also still charge extra levies.’’

He said that they were doing some work with the international passport, and revealed that the cost of a 32 page passport is N15,000 and a 64 page passport N20,000.

“We want to make it difficult for officers to abuse the system and that is by using technology and bypassing human interaction also providing opportunity for citizens to blow the whistle whenever they are being exploited,’’ he said.

He added that the organisation would also ensure that the time frame for obtaining permanent driver’s license after being issued with the temporary one will not be more than two months.

Commenting on the plan to sensitise Nigerians, Abah said they were collaborating with the National Orientation Agency for wider spread of the message since they have the structure.

According to him, phone numbers are being placed at the various licensing centres for processing so that Nigerians can call if anybody tries to extort more money from them than they need to.

The director-general stressed the need to create awareness on these processes particularly that of NAFDAC, International Passport and others to enable the public identify when things are being done wrongly.

“We are basically tracking the process for obtaining a NAFDAC licence because people sometimes submit 100 samples to get one tested for approval so we want to check this and ensure the process is transparent.

“Also we are working on the process of seeing a doctor in a government hospital because that clarity of process is not there, you go to the hospital and you are not sure if you will see a doctor or not.

“Effective service delivery can be best achieved by focusing first on the customer because you could actually get efficient service delivery at doing the wrong thing.

“That’s why in our own case we ask questions to find out what areas they are having challenges, public service delivery should be designed around the needs of the customer,’’ he concluded,

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