By Milton Tella – The impact of Covid-19 pandemic has affected businesses around the world differently, with many unable to return to business as usual. When the new administration at the Nigeria High Commission London took over on 5th May 2021, there were 18,000 applications for passports pending between December 2019 and mid April 2021, when operations commenced after the Covid-19 lockdown was lifted. Further new applications are still on-going till date.
Sixty Days in Office
UK Ambassador, His Excellency, Sarafa Isola who has promised to be transparent with his administration and to regularly engage with the Nigerian community, gave an update on his 6o days since resumption in office.
The hallmark of the new administration is the fact that the Mission tries daily, to see how it could serve Nigerians better, by resuming at 8.00 am prompt and closing as late as 10.00 pm daily to process backlog of passport applications.
A staff of the Immigration Section told African Voice that, “All passports production are now done on the same day, then posted the following day. This was made possible because of the on-going reshuffling of staff and streamlining of the process by His Excellency, the High Commissioner, Ambassador Isola.”
Passport Backlog
Since 12th April, 2021 when the Mission reopened for passport processing, 19,068 applications have been processed, while 18,042 passport booklets have been produced and issued to respective applicants. The bulk of the remainders are mainly data change due to various reasons, as well as those with different errors by applicants, in which case some of the information filled on the online forms are different from the ones in their current passports or rearrangement of names, change of date of birth, addition of extra names, fingerprint errors for children or adults alike.
US Dollar for Online Passport Payment
Nigerian Passport application payments are made online in US dollar by all the 52 passport-issuing centres all over the world. The Federal Government of Nigeria and not the UK Mission collects the payment for passport in US Dollars. The payment in US dollars is simply because dollars is a universally accepted currency for trading.
£20 Administrative Charge
The introduction of £20 Administrative Charge is approved for all Nigerian Diplomatic Missions all over the world by the Federal Government of Nigeria to enable the missions to offset part of the running cost of the processing centre in the missions across the world. However, collection should have commenced in London in 2020 when the Federal Government granted approval, but the Mission decided to suspend its implementation until recently due to the Covid-19 scourge.
Revenue generation has not been the Mission’s target but the urge to render and deliver quality services to Nigerians and all those in need of its services.
Introduction of Passport Fast Track Service
The main purpose of introducing passport fast track service is to give access to those who are in urgent need of the passport to obtain it with the payment of £100. This is a global best practice, anywhere in the world, including the United Kingdom.
Passport fast track service was introduced on 24th May, 2021, to discourage applicants from patronising touts who charge between £170 and £350 per application, thus smearing the good effort of the officials of the Mission who work tirelessly, to ensure that proper and effective services are delivered to all applicants. The fast track service is totally optional and It helps to discourage racketeering.
Postal Order for Passport Application
The use of postal order is to reduce the amount of time spent in the High Commission. The mission attends to between 250 – 450 applications daily. If another payment process were to be required while in the mission, this would elongated the time spent in the mission by each applicant, thus creating more chaos and more pressure on staff.
Disabilities Entrance
Those with disabilities make use of the Chancery entrance and not the Immigration entrance. There is a ramp that is used for bringing in applicants with disabilities. The location of the building makes it impossible to erect a permanent structure for this purpose. However, efforts are ongoing to relocate the passport section to Fleet Street in London, where adequate arrangements are already being made for applicants as well as visitors with disabilities.
Nigeria High Commission Website
As of now, the mission is well aware of the need for improvement in the user-friendliness of its website and so, efforts are ongoing to reposition the website in such a way that facilitates better engagements with members of the public.
Data Capture for Passport Renewal
The issue of data capture for passport renewal, is not peculiar to Nigeria. In actual fact, many countries of the world issue visas to Nigerians because of the updated data capturing system. For emphasis, dual citizens of Nigeria/Britain currently need a valid Nigerian passport to renew their British passport. It should not also be forgotten that Nigerians and British differ in assessment by Interpol and other Security Agencies across the world. Hence, we wish that our data system could compare with that of the UK. Despite the various efforts to compile the statistics of Nigerians in the United Kingdom, this has become difficult with Nigerians hiding under the Data Protection Act to refrain the Mission from having any cogent data on them, thus frustrating planning for them, since the actual number of Nigerians in the UK is unknown.
On why Nigerians should do digital capture, the decision on this does not reside with the Mission as the Mission merely implements Federal Government policy as directed. So also, is the Federal Government’s decision to denominate the online payment for passports in US Dollars.
Community Appraisal
African Voice sought the assessment of a respectable member of the Nigerian community in the UK who visited the Mission on 7thJuly, 2021 for passport renewal.
Dr Cyril Evbuomwan, a medical doctor and former President of the influential Club 87 of London said, “I was at the High Commission this morning 7th July 2021, for passport renewal. I attended with my wife and two daughters.
“We arrived at about 8am and met a queue of fellow Nigerians outside the door. It was very orderly. At about 8:30am a member of staff came out to remind everyone of the documents needed to get ready for the passport renewal process.
“Just before the door was opened, the same gentleman, starting from the front of the queue, inspected everybody’s documents and arranged them in an orderly manner. He was very friendly and respectful. This allowed anybody who did not have the complete documents like postal order or return envelopes to quickly get them while the rest of us we were ushered into the High Commission. Within an hour, our applications were registered, ticketed and sent upstairs for biometrics. My family and l were done and out at about 10.30am.
The level of organisation was quite commendable. All the staff were polite and professional. I take the opportunity to thank all for the good work and the wonderful experience today.”
Nigeria High Commission UK pledge to continue to explore ways to further improve on Consular services in compliance with its mandate.
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