Good news for Nigerians! The long wait for international passports is finally over as the Federal Government has announced that citizens can now collect their passports within 24 hours of approval.

Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this on Thursday during an inspection of the newly commissioned Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) headquarters in Abuja.

According to him, this milestone is part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which has successfully cleared years of backlogs and eliminated the era of manual passport processing.

“The era of backlogs and manual personalisation is over. Nigerians can now expect faster, more reliable service as we strengthen the integrity of our travel documents,” Tunji-Ojo said.

The Minister revealed that the system, powered by IRIS Smart Technologies Ltd., now allows the NIS to produce 4,500–5,000 passports daily, a massive leap from the previous capacity of 250–300 per machine.

He added that Nigeria has now joined advanced nations like the US, UK, France, and India in adopting modern, secure passport systems.

Tunji-Ojo also commended key officials, including the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mrs. Kemi Nandap, for their role in achieving what he described as a historic turning point in Nigeria’s 62-year immigration history.