Nigerians in the diaspora are charged $100 at the foreign missions for some services due to paucity of funds to run operations of the country mission, said Minister of Foreign Affairs.
According to Geoffrey Onyema, “The $100 they (Nigerians in the US) said has been added is voluntary; it is just for those who want to have their biometrics done without an appointment.
“If you wait for your appointment, you will get it (done) and not pay. But if you want it the same day, then pay $100,” Onyema told the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs in Abuja.
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Onyema also said his ministry planned to make Nigerians in diaspora have access to a 24/7 call centre in Nigeria that would take complaints from across the world.
The Controller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Muhammed Babandede on his part decried the shortage of passport booklets, which he described as the biggest challenge facing the service.
“The passport is the biggest challenge. When we talk about passports, the challenges are ours; some of the challenges are with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and some are with Nigerians themselves. On our side, we have the huge challenge of scarcity of passport booklets.”
He lamented that the NIS had only 47 offices across Nigeria despite the huge population of the country.
