Immigration Reveals The Reasons Why Passport Processing In Nigeria Is Cheaper In The North Than South

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Southerners believe that this is one of the many benefits provided by the federal government to northerners, and many of these factors have caused significant problems among the tribes.

However, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has explained why the country’s northern and southern regions currently have different price regimes.

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has denied that different parts of the country have different passport fees.

This follows a social media backlash after it was discovered that southern Nigerians paid more to process their passports than their northern counterparts.

When compared to applicants from Ekiti State, the average applicant from Kaduna State would pay far less, according to a quick check on the immigration website.

For a 32-page passport with a five-year validity, an applicant in Kaduna between the ages of 0 and 17 is required to pay a total of N10,750, according to one of the photographs that went viral online.

An applicant from Ekiti state, on the other hand, will be required to pay N25,000 in addition to the booklet fee.

This imbalance, as shown in screenshots shared online, affects a number of states in both the northern and southern regions of the country, prompting some Nigerians to accuse the agency of discrimination.

According to a statement attributed to the agency’s Comptroller General, Isah Jere Idris, the allegation of discrimination is “laughable and pedestrian” because the agency does not consider the applicants’ state of residence before issuing passports.

He explained that the price difference was due to the NIS currently running two Passport regimes concurrently – electronic Passport and enhanced electronic Passport.

“WE DON’T HAVE ANY DISCRIMINATORY PASSPORT CHARGES The attention of the Comptroller General Isah Jere Idris has been drawn to some stories about discriminatory Passport charges for Passport applicants in the North and South of the country.

“The report is not only laughable but also very pedestrian. The Passports we issue are for Nigerians irrespective of where they live including those in the diaspora. What we do have are two Passport regimes that are running concurrently.

“The fee chargeable range from N8750-N17800 depending on age of the applicant and category of Passport. At the moment, the Service is steadily migrating all its Passport Centres to the enhanced ePassport regime.

“To this effect, all the Centres in South-South, South-West & South-East including our Desks in the UK&USA have been fully migrated to the enhanced regime. In the work plan, Centres in the North-West, North-East, Canada & others are getting ready for migration to the enhanced Passport regime very soon.

“We therefore, like to reiterate that there is absolutely no discriminatory Passport fees anywhere on our platform. We advise those peddling such empty narrative to get educated by this clarification please.”

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