Early in September, the minister vowed to sort the existing backlogs of about 204,000 in two weeks.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has pegged the timeline for the processing of passport applications to two weeks.
Nigerians go through hardship to get international passports at the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) offices across the country.
Early in September, the minister vowed to sort the existing backlogs of about 204,000 in two weeks.
However, speaking at a media parley in Abuja on Wednesday, Mr Tunji-ojo apologised to Nigerians that clearance of the backlog had spilt into three weeks as opposed to the two-week deadline he gave.
The minister, however, praised officers and men of the NIS for working day and night including weekends and public holidays to meet up with his directive.
He said while the procurement of visas is a privilege, acquiring international passports is a right.
He also expressed the commitment of President Bola Tinubu not to increase the cost of passport application despite the foreign exchange volatility.
He said: "We inherited 204,332 enrolments without passports being issued. People that had applied and captured. That was the figure and we gave a marching order because the president was also on our necks to bring solutions and succour to Nigerians.
"We went into strategic meetings with the NIS and with the support of our service providers, we were able to increase printing machines to four in passport offices where we had two. Our service providers gave us the machines at no cost.
"The NIS personnel were doing three shifts, working 24/7 to make sure that we cleared the backlogs and to ensure that never again are we going to have backlogs of passport production.
"We want to ensure that nobody waits for more than two weeks to get their passports."
The minister said as of 1 October, all the 204,332 backlogs had been cleared.
"From the records produced by NIS, the number of passports already collected is 91,981. Outstanding but available is 112,351," he said.
He, therefore, called on Nigerians who applied for the passports to visit immigration offices to collect their passports.
New development
The minister added that in the next couple of months, passport applicants would be able to upload their passport photographs via the immigration portal, rather than going to passport offices for such a capture.
According to him, applicants would only be required to visit the passport offices for their biometrics enrolment.
"Hopefully by December, people will not need to go to passport offices and they are snapping or taking pictures. This is 2023. People will be able to upload their passport photographs online with specifications. When you apply for a visa, you do that and we are advancing in that line," he said.
"Also, your supporting documents should be uploaded online so that when you go to the passport office, it will just be for biometrics and within five minutes you have left there.
"We don't want the past situation whereby people spend the whole day at the passport offices. So instead of the offices capturing maybe 400 a day, they will be able to accommodate more people.
"These are some of the innovations we are bringing. Even though we know what the exchange rate is, we are not increasing passport fees. The government of President Tinubu understands the needs of the people. As a person, I do not want anybody to go and stay in a passport office for more than 10 minutes".
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Raising complaints
Meanwhile, Mr Tunji-ojo asked Nigerians not to pay bribes for their passports. He also provided contacts to lodge complaints where there were any.
"We are pleading with Nigerians to please go and collect their passports. Please, do not give money to anybody. If there is any passport office where you have done your capturing and they do not give you your passports, please lodge your complaints via the following; 0802 375 3414, preferably SMS and Whatsapp. Or email aa-ajiboye@yahoo.com
"The attitude of a very negligible fraction of NIS officers will not cast aspersions on the work of the majority of good officers," he said.
Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe
