Lagos – At least 72,000 international passports have been produced at the Ikoyi Passport office of the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) in Lagos in the past six months.
Also, within the period under review, there had been about 68,000 passport collections by different applicants.
A source close to the Service revealed this to our correspondents on Thursday in Lagos.
According to the source, to achieve the feat, officers in the Production Department of the Service had to work at nights while collection was equally extended to Saturdays.
The source said that the production of the huge number was significant within the period, following the scarcity that greeted passport production and collections earlier in the year.
It was also learnt that some of the major changes that had eased issuance of passports at the Ikoyi Passport Office, with regards processes and procedure came as a result of the Comptroller General of Immigration, Mahammad Babandede’s drive to make the acquisition of the passport less tedious and remove any form of cash transaction that may lead to gratification of officers.
A source close to the Service told INDEPENDENT in Lagos on Thursday that the new management team at the Ikoyi office had come in May and met a lot of files, some down to March this year, which were unattended to.
The source added: “Then, Ikoyi Passport Office had three months hanging and as we had these three months hanging, we continued to develop more files because the processes of passport issuance had not stopped.
“As we were having March, we were developing another data bank of June and July and if we start clearing March, we are keeping June, July and so that was a challenge we needed to address.
“We went straight to Service Headquarters, told them our findings, which we met on ground and requested they supplied us with booklets that would be able to cater this backlog. Fortunately, our CG instructed and the booklets were provided and that addressed an aspect of the problem.”
On how the team was able to produce passports for the backlog of applicants as well as those currently seeking application to renew or acquire the passport, our source explained the process of having to produce it at night to avoid distractions.
According to the source, the Production Department of the Service had to work through the night to meet demands, which he said further increased production and delivery.
The source hinted that at least 2,000 booklets were produced every night to meet demand and clear backlogs.
He however said that despite the mass production and huge demands that followed, the control mechanisms put in place prevented chaos at the service.
“So we needed to strategise. We linked up with the service headquarters to increase the point for the collection. Before then, we only had a collection point, we developed an open one here, a VIP, near by the Passport Controllers office so we can bring applicants there to decongest having them in one place and make the place crowded.
“Subsequently, another was opened at the back, so we took the elder and children to the back, the VIP and the youth can go to the general collection area. So the decentralisation reduced the crowd to a manageable number,” the source added.
The post Ikoyi Passport Office Reaches 72,000 Production In 6 Months appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.
Ikoyi Passport Office Reaches 72,000 Production In 6 Months
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