Nigerians to start paying for NIN verification from April 1st when applying for international passport

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has said that starting from April 1st, Nigerians will start paying for the verification of their National Identification Number (NIN) during applications for an International Passport.

With this development, the Commission has released a set of fees to be paid for the service. 

According to NIMC, Nigerians applying within the country will be paying N1,000, those applying from other African countries will be paying $5 or its equivalent in other currencies, while those applying from countries outside Africa will be paying $15 or its equivalent.  

NIMC in a statement released on Monday and signed by its Head of Corporate Communications, Kayode Adegoke, said the introduction of the fees followed the development of a framework with the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to improve the speed of passport services delivery. 

The statement: The statement from the NIMC announcing the new fees regime reads: 

• “The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) wishes to inform the general public that it has devised and agreed on a framework with the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to significantly improve the quality of service, accuracy, and speed of passport services through the timely verification of the National Identification Number (NIN). 
• “This new arrangement is in furtherance of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy’s directive to streamline passport application, renewal, and issuance processes. Consequently, a NIN Verification fee would be charged for each Nigerian passport application for this service. 
• NIMC and NIS have agreed on a revised applicant journey that will significantly improve the speed of passport issuance/re-issuance and reduce the traffic visiting the NIS office(s). The NIN service, fees, and the new NIS process will go live on 1st April 2023.” 

Self-verification: The NIS had last year announced plans to enable Nigerians to verify their National Identification Number (NIN) on its website by themselves. The service said this was to fast-track the issuance of international passports to applicants.  

The introduction of fees by the NIMC in collaboration with the NIS means that Nigerians will now be paying on the NIS website for self-verification.  

• The Acting Comptroller-General of the NIS, Isa Idris, who announced the commencement of self-verification admitted that the process of verifying the NIN after an appointment has been given to the applicants causes delays in the process of issuing passports.  
• He added that the NIS had integrated its systems with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to achieve a seamless verification 
• While noting that the NIS was trying to keep up with the government’s policy of three weeks for renewal and six weeks for fresh application, he said the verifications, which include verifying the house address of applicants often lead to delays that extend beyond the timeline. 

Related