FG Delivers 1.48m Passports, Receives 23,552 Marriage Applications

The Federal Ministry of Interior has undertaken a review of the performances of its service providers for the year 2020, disclosing that it delivered about 1,487,000 Passport Booklets, and received no fewer than 23,552 Marriage Registration Applications.
This was as the ministry also handed down a policy directive to the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to deactivate all passports with unverified addresses.
The Director of Press in the ministry, Mrs Lere Adams, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja, yesterday.
According to her, the Federal Government is now more than ever determined to ensure effective and efficient service delivery to all Nigerians at home, in the Diaspora, and foreigners alike.
She quoted the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, as saying that the review meetings availed the ministry the opportunity to evaluate the achievements and challenges of the service providers.
On the key performance indices from some of the service providers, the ministry stated, “Iris Smart Technology Ltd stated that a total number of 1,487,000 Passport Booklets were delivered in 2020.
“Also, Greater Washington Xpress in charge of Passport Address Verification revealed that out of the 1,563,104 addresses verified within the percentage of the total number of addresses validated.
“Networks Solution Limited, a service provider in the visa processing business with operations in 22 locations around the world, revealed that despite the pandemic, it processed 84,948 visa applications in the period under review.
“Another service provider, Anchor Dataware Solutions, revealed that a total of 23,552 Marriage Registration Applications were received, with a total number of 459 Place of Worship Registrations received”.
According to the statement, the minister charged “Iris to do everything within its powers to ensure that passport production is not disrupted and scarcity eliminated.
“That Thebes should ensure that the Ease of Doing Business is not compromised while top notch customer service is delivered.
“The minister said, no person with unverified address will be issued passport, more so address revalidation will be conducted periodically to protect the integrity of the Nigerian passport”.