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Immigration Service blames CBN for scarcity of passports in Nigeria
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has blamed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the scarcity of international passport booklets in the country.
NIS comptroller-general, Idris Jere, said the foreign exchange (forex) policy of the CBN has impacted the ability of the immigration service to make passports readily available for Nigerians.
According to reports on Wednesday, Jere disclosed that the central bank does not provide foreign exchange for the importation of the booklets for passport purposes.
Jere explained that the immigration service doesn’t have access to forex even though NIS generates foreign exchange from the sales of passports.
He said Nigeria produces passports abroad because the country doesn’t have the factory to produce the booklets, hence, the dependence on forex.
“foreign exchange regulation policy of the government and CBN’s refusal to grant access to forex for importation of the booklets,” he said, adding, “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.”
It was learnt that the international market is the only place to buy the seven major components used for producing passports and Malaysia is where assemblage and production are done.
“The factors responsible for the scarcity of passports include the inability to set up passport producing factory in Nigeria as its production is done abroad.
“The major seven components used for producing passports are sold in the international market and the assemblage and production are done in Malaysia,” Jere said.
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