The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), has commenced the issuance of the e-passport in Nigeria's Embassies and High Commissions abroad with the flag-off of the exercise at the Nigerian High Commission in London on Tuesday June 24, 2008.

The flag-off ceremony which was performed by Nigeria's High Commissioner  in the United Kingdom, Dr. Dalhatu Tafida was witnessed by the Deputy High Commissioner, Ambassador Dozie Nwana , Head of Chancery, Alhaji Abdulrahman Salladeen,Chief of Protocol at the High Commission,Mr. Bamidele Banjoko, the Asst Comptroller-General of Immigration (Passports)Mr. Bayo Akolade , Chairman of Central Association of Nigerians in the United Kingdom, Dr. Abani Mark and representatives of Nigerian Business Community in London. 50 Nigerians were issued with the e-passport at the flag-off.

In his keynote address, the High Commissioner extended his gratitude to the Federal Government for ensuring the success of the e-passport project. He described the flag-off as an epoch making event and called on Nigerians to see the e-passport as an instrument that will improve the  image of  Nigeria bothered by a very few Nigerians who had abused the Machine Readable Passport.

Dr. Dalhatu also pointed out that government had made deliberate steps to ensure that the fee for the e-passport is affordable.

Speaking also, the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mr. Chukwurah Udeh, said the e-passport has successfully addressed the issue of identity theft as the biometric features of the holder of the passport is encrypted in a chip which is in turn embedded in the passport. This information is then stored in the central data base of the Service using the Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).

Therefore, any attempt for any one to hold more than one passport or use another person's passport no matter the resembrance, is futile. He also informed Nigerians in London that there is no provision for endorsement of children in the e-passport; therefore, every Nigerian no matter the age must hold his or her own passport.

Meanwhile, the technical team of NIS also left for New York on Wednesday  June 25, 2008 to install the e-passport equipments in preparedness for its flag-off in the next one week.

So far, 470,000 e-passports has been issued at 22 passports issuing centres in Nigeria, namely Abuja, Ilorin, Sokoto, Yola, Maiduguri, Kano, Minna, Gombe, Kaduna, Kastina, Awka, Asaba, Owerri, Enugu, Benin, Port Harcourt, Yenagoa, Uyo, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Ikoyi, and Festac(Lagos).