The Federal Government has explained why it kept passport fees the same for Nigerians living abroad but increased them for those living in Nigeria.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, shared this with news reporters in Abuja.
He said that the booklet used to make Nigerian passports is bought from other countries and paid for in dollars. As the dollar becomes more expensive compared to the naira, the passport cost goes up too.
However, for Nigerians living abroad, they already use foreign money like dollars. So, there is no need to increase their passport fees, and the price stays the same for them.
The Minister added that their goal is to serve the people, not to make things more expensive for Nigerians.
“The booklet is imported and costs dollars. When the dollar gets more expensive in naira, the old price would need a subsidy.
“We cannot do that. That’s why we didn’t increase the passport price abroad. The passport price abroad is in dollars, so exchange rates don’t affect it.
“We are not trying to make profits from Nigerians. We want to serve the people. If you see how much it costs to make a passport and convert it to naira, you’ll understand. When the dollar was worth N400, and now it’s N1,600, the price cannot stay the same. So, we increased it from N34,000 to N60,000.
“The exchange rate has gone up more than our price increase,” Tunji-Ojo said.
Background
Newslodge reported that the government announced in August that passport fees for Nigerians living in the country would go up from September 1st, 2024.
The announcement was made by DCI KT Udo, the Service Public Relations Officer at the Nigeria Immigration Service, on their official X (formerly Twitter) account.
Under the new prices, the fee for a 32-page passport booklet with a 5-year validity will go from N35,000 to N50,000.
The cost of a 64-page passport booklet with a 10-year validity will increase from N70,000 to N100,000.
However, the government kept the old prices for Nigerians living abroad.
Important Information
Under the leadership of Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Nigeria’s passport system has improved a lot.
In August 2023, Tunji-Ojo told the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to solve a backlog of over 200,000 pending passport applications in two weeks.
By October 2023, the NIS said they had cleared the backlog and asked Nigerians to collect their passports from specified offices.
In May 2024, the government said it would start delivering passports to homes from June. This change means people won’t need to visit immigration offices as much. It’s part of a bigger plan to make getting passports easier for everyone.