The Federal Government has made clarifications on the recent increase in passport fees, saying it is not feasible for the government to subsidise the issuance of the travel document.

Many Nigerians had criticized the government for increasing the passport fees by about 45 per cent.

Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, speaking at a news conference on Friday in Abuja, said the fee adjustment was caused by the high exchange rate between the dollar and the naira.

It will be recalled that in August, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) announced an upward review of the fees for Nigerian Standard Passports.

With the new payment structure, the cost of a 32-page passport booklet with a five-year validity was hiked from N35,000 to N50,000, while a 64-page passport booklet with a 10-year validity rose from N70,000 to N100,000.

Tunji-Ojo maintained that the Federal Government could not subsidise passport fees for Nigerians, stressing that the travel document is an individual thing and not the same as National Identity Card that is produced free for Nigerians.

While also noting that the government was not exploiting Nigerians but simply covering the cost of passport procurement, the Minister, however, explained that the price increase did not affect the fees for Nigerians living abroad.

He said: ?The increase in passport fees is a matter of cost-benefit analysis, especially when considering the exchange rate between the dollar and the naira.

?If the government were to subsidise anything, I don?t think it should be passports. The increase is just from N35,000 to N50,000 ?only about 45%. There has been no increase for Nigerians abroad,? Tunji-Ojo said.

He added that Nigerians in the Diaspora, particularly those in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, would soon enjoy more seamless passport acquisition processes.

?We are going to pre-launch these automated systems very soon. By October, they will be fully operational. In London, for instance, we have 16,000 Nigerians applying for passports, while the capacity of our systems at the Embassy is about 200.

?But now that we have this system in place, Nigerians will no longer need to undertake multiple journeys across the world to acquire a passport,? he stated.

He debunked claims on passport booklet scarcity while responding to a question, saying the NIS current has over 80,000 passports in stock.

He also noted that all passport backlogs had been cleared and that the Nigeria Immigration Service no longer owes its service providers for the printing and supply of passports. (Nigerian Tribune)

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