Last year, we increased production to 1.8 million, nearly doubling our efforts. In 2021, we produced one million booklets. To respond to the challenge, we increased our production capacity.

“Fresh application will take six weeks after biometric data capture, while renewal requires just three weeks. The backlogs have all been cleared and we are producing on schedule in all our centres. Many people who had no immediate need of passports then started applying, creating a deluge of applications. “Then, of course, the panic buying syndrome kicked in. This created a backlog that we were trying to clear when an unprecedented number of Nigerians now decided to travel outside the country and applied for passports, thereby compounding the backlog challenge. The first factor in this upsurge was the COVID-19 pandemic which affected our production schedule, due to restrictions on human movement.

The Minister said: “In recent years, there has been an upsurge in passport demands by Nigerians.

Aregbesola noted that the surge in the number of applications necessitates the establishment of more passport front offices across the country, which is born out of the determination of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to further make the process seamless.

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