- Home delivery of passports in Nigeria will begin in June, initially available in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Abuja
- The service will start abroad in the United States and the United Kingdom, ensuring data integrity with a dedicated data center
Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior, announced that home delivery of passports will commence in June.
Speaking on May 24 during an inspection of the electronic gates at the new terminal of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Tunji-Ojo specified that the service will start in select locations to avoid system overload.
The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) will launch the home delivery service in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Abuja.
For Nigerians abroad, the service will debut in the United States and the United Kingdom, with initial testing to ensure its effectiveness.
The minister explained that the delay in starting home delivery was due to the lack of dedicated data centers. The NIS had relied on a private company’s data center, but a permanent solution was needed for data integrity and national security.
“We have completed the entire solution, but when we assumed office, we realized that a dedicated data center was not in place,” Tunji-Ojo stated.
“We were using a private company’s data center, and while we appreciate their assistance, we believe it’s crucial to establish a permanent solution rather than opting for quick fixes. Although we could have launched in February, we chose to build our data center from scratch to ensure the integrity of our data and national security.”
Tunji-Ojo also expressed disappointment that despite being 61 years old, the NIS, responsible for Nigeria’s biometric data, does not yet have full control over the country’s data.