INVESTIGATION: How To Get Nigerian Passport Within 24hrs? First Get A NIS Agent

The Nigerian Immigration Service headquarters in Abuja is a magnificent building with spacious offices for all immigration services rendered by it.

But some officers have established their own “service centres” outside of their offices.

A tent in the premises serves as a reception area for people seeking to acquire International Passports or renew an old one.

NIS officers from their different offices come to meet their clients at the tent after a phone call. Some come with envelopes containing newly issued passports while some walk to the data capturing room with their clients.

Those taken to the data capturing room are treated like VIPs and do not spend much time as others who followed the official channels and had been invited for data capturing after months of registration on the NIS portal.

For those seeking Nigerian international passports, no one would tell you to get an agent—usually an official of NIS—unless you make enquiries.

THE WHISTLER made such an inquiry recently at the NIS headquarters and discovered that the easiest and fastest way to get a passport is to first hire an agent, an immigration officer or anyone who knows an officer.

If you don’t know anyone, just go to the headquarters and someone will be lurking around to ask what you need.

THE WHISTLER reporter was directed to a tent in the premises not far from the data capturing room where she met a handful of other “clients” awaiting their “agents.”

This is where agents come to deliver newly issued passports or take clients for express data capturing. After the data capturing, the passport issuing process doesn’t last more than 24 hours! This is quite significant considering that it may take more than three months for those following official channels to get a new passport.

Inside the hall used for capturing, our Correspondent discovered that for your document to be considered early enough, it must have been submitted by an officer ‘agent’..

Inside the hall, a client, Tola, walked in with an officer, straight to the counter to register her name, before the officer left.

Tola spoke with THE WHISTLER: “You may not be able to do this processing yourself, why not just speak to any of these officers? You may just have to give them a little cash and that is all,” she told the reporter, when asked how she managed to get an express treatment.

“I didn’t even know the officer that did mine, I got his contact from a friend. So I called him and forwarded the sum of N38,000 to his account.

“He just called me to come for capturing today, that is why I’m here,” she added.

The officer had submitted her documents ahead and assured her she would take longer than an hour at the data room.

Another client, Bukky, needed a Nigerian passport to process admission into an institution abroad and told her father.

“So, one day, he directed me to meet a man at the immigration office. I met the man who typed something on his computer, and directed me to another office for capturing.

“I got in there, it didn’t take too long, they called my name and did the capturing and that was it.

“Few days later my father brought my passport home, I didn’t have to go there myself,” she explained with an air of privilege.

Bashir, whose brother is an officer at the NIS headquarters, works as an agent for his brother. He lives in Gwagwalada but visits the NIS office daily to process passports for clients.

“My brother is an officer there, so I bring clients for him. If you come to Gwagwalada, within 2 hours, everything will be done for just N38,000,” he told this website during a chat.

Information on the NIS portal shows that a fresh application for a 32- page passport costs N10,750 for individuals aged 0-17 years, as well as 60 years and above. The sum of N8,750 is for passport booklet and 2,000 for address verification.

But for applicants aged 18-59years, they are expected to pay a total sum of N17,000– N15,000 for passport booklet and N2,000 for address verification.

NIS Public Relations Officer, Amos Okpu, who responded to THE WHISTLER‘s allegation via text message said, “We are on a new passport regime that gives ownership of the passport application process to applicants. Kindly indicate the names of any of our personnel you’ve noticed to be disrupting the process.”