The scarcity of international passport booklets in the country is due to a lack of access to foreign exchange, according to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
Speaking at a public hearing organized by an ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, the comptroller-general of the NIS, Idris Jere, said the booklets are imported into the country.
He said the shortage was caused by the “foreign exchange regulation policy of the government and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) refusal to grant access to forex for the importation of the booklets.”
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“We generate forex from the sale of passports, but we do not have access to buy the same booklet, and that is a challenge for NIS,” NAN quoted Jere as saying.
“The factors responsible for the scarcity of passports include the inability to set up a passport-producing factory in Nigeria as its production is done abroad.
“The major seven components used for producing passports are sold on the international market, and the assemblage and production are done in Malaysia.”
Last week, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola said corrupt officials were undermining the efforts of the NIS to sanitize the passport application process.
(omayowa@globalfinancialdigest.com; Newsroom: +234 8033 964 138)
