The Federal Government has openly defended its decision to introduce a significant increase in the fees for obtaining Nigerian passports, raising the cost to ₦100,000 for the 32-page, five-year booklet and ₦200,000 for the 64-page, 10-year booklet. According to government officials, this upward review is not only necessary but also aimed at enhancing efficiency, curbing corruption, and protecting the integrity of Nigeria’s internationally recognized travel document. The government insists that the reforms will permanently put an end to years of extortion, unnecessary delays, and inefficiencies that have long frustrated passport applicants within the country.
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), through a detailed statement released by its Public Relations Officer, ACI AS Akinlabi, officially announced on Thursday that the new fees will become effective starting from September 1, 2025. This development means that all new applications for Nigerian passports within the country will henceforth be charged under the revised structure, while Nigerians living abroad will continue to pay the existing fees of $150 for the 32-page booklet and $230 for the 64-page booklet, thereby maintaining some level of stability for the diaspora community.
Under the revised arrangement, a standard 32-page booklet with five years’ validity will now cost ₦100,000 within Nigeria, while a 64-page booklet with ten years’ validity will cost ₦200,000. The NIS explained that the new fee structure was carefully designed to ensure sustainability of the passport production process, to maintain the high quality of the document, and to provide faster and more reliable service delivery to Nigerians both at home and abroad. The Service emphasized that the review was not only about generating revenue but also about building a system that guarantees transparency and efficiency.
Speaking at the Ministry of Interior’s mid-tenure performance retreat held in Abuja, the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, strongly defended the new policy, stressing that the increment was necessary to achieve timely processing of passports and to completely eradicate corruption within the system. He made it clear that the ultimate goal of the government is to ensure that every Nigerian who applies for a passport should be able to receive it within one week of enrollment, without resorting to bribery or waiting endlessly for months as was previously the case. He further emphasized that the focus was not just on speed but also on delivering passports of world-class quality that reflect the integrity of Nigeria as a sovereign nation.
Recalling the challenges of the old system, the minister noted how passport applicants were often forced to wait for months before receiving their passports or pay exorbitant sums to middlemen and corrupt officials in order to expedite the process. He gave a personal example of how even his own 12-year-old daughter once had to face difficulties in obtaining her passport, a situation that eventually forced him to pay hundreds of thousands of naira, despite his position as the then-chairman of the House Committee on NDDC. He described such experiences as shameful and unacceptable, while assuring Nigerians that such a corrupt era is now over under the current reforms.
Dr. Tunji-Ojo further explained that the government has invested heavily in strengthening the production capacity of the passport system through the establishment of a centralised personalisation centre, which he described as the largest of its kind in Africa. This new facility, according to him, is capable of producing up to five times the current demand for passports, ensuring that scarcity and unnecessary delays become a thing of the past. He insisted that the reform was carefully crafted to eliminate unnecessary human contact, which has been identified as one of the main avenues for corruption within the system.
“We realised that the best way to cut corruption is to remove human contact to the barest minimum. Passport approval will no longer rest with Passport Control Officers (PCOs),” the minister declared. He stressed that his duty was not to seek the approval of officials within the system but to deliver a service that makes Nigerians happy and restores confidence in the country’s passport processing framework. He also announced that Passport Control Officers will no longer have the unchecked power to withhold or delay passport approvals, a reform that he said would bring an end to decades of abuse of power and extortion.
According to him, some officers in the past had wielded so much power that they could decide not to process or print a passport unless they were financially settled by desperate applicants. With the new measures in place, such corrupt practices will be eliminated, ensuring that the issuance of Nigerian passports becomes transparent, fast, and free from manipulation. “That abuse of power ends now,” he said firmly, while noting that reducing human interaction in the approval process was the most effective way to fight corruption in passport administration.
The minister also highlighted another crucial aspect of the reforms, which is the protection of Nigeria’s national identity. He cited past cases where foreigners had successfully obtained Nigerian passports through fraudulent means, thereby compromising the integrity of the nation’s travel documents. He stressed that the new reforms are also designed to prevent such abuses, ensuring that only genuine Nigerians are able to hold the country’s passport. “My responsibility is not just to make passports available, but to ensure that anybody carrying it is a Nigerian. If you are not a Nigerian, you cannot carry it. It’s about our national integrity,” he declared with emphasis.
It is worth noting that this latest increment in passport fees comes just one year after a previous adjustment was implemented in August 2024, when the government raised the price of the 32-page booklet from ₦35,000 to ₦50,000 and the 64-page booklet from ₦70,000 to ₦100,000. With the new hike, the government believes it is taking a decisive step toward ensuring efficiency, sustainability, and integrity in the issuance of Nigerian passports, even though the decision has sparked mixed reactions among citizens.
In summary, the Federal Government maintains that the reviewed passport fees are not merely about raising costs for Nigerians but are part of a broader reform agenda designed to stamp out corruption, guarantee faster delivery, and protect the nation’s global reputation through the issuance of high-quality, fraud-proof travel documents. The coming months will reveal whether these promises will translate into a smoother and more reliable passport application experience for millions of Nigerians.