Abuja, Nigeria — The Federal Government has announced a stunning increase in Nigerian passport fees, nearly doubling the cost of a 10-year validity passport to ₦200,000 in a move aimed at “killing corruption” and ensuring timely delivery. The new fees, which will take effect on September 1, 2025, come less than a year after a previous price hike.
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) announced the new fees in a statement on Thursday, revealing that a 32-page, five-year validity passport will now cost ₦100,000, while the 64-page, 10-year option will be priced at ₦200,000 for applications made within Nigeria. Fees for Nigerians in the diaspora remain unchanged at $150 and $230 respectively.
Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, defended the controversial hike, framing it as a necessary evil to stamp out corruption and a months-long backlog. Speaking at a retreat in Abuja, the minister said the new system is designed to eliminate the extortion that forced citizens to pay as much as ₦200,000 to fast-track their applications.
“The system that we inherited… Nigerians will apply for passports and wait endlessly, or be asked to pay hundreds of thousands of naira,” Tunji-Ojo said. “My own daughter had that bad experience… I had to pay hundreds of thousands to be able to get a passport for my daughter, a 12-year-old girl. That era is over.”
As part of the reforms, the minister announced that the power to approve or delay passport applications will be stripped from Passport Control Officers (PCOs). This authority will be centralized to cut down on human contact and curb the abuse of power. “My responsibility is not for them to like me — it is to deliver efficiency. Let Nigerians be happy,” he stated.
The minister also revealed the government is banking on a new, centralized personalization center, which he claimed is the largest in Africa, to handle the demand. “With this facility, we can print five times more passports than we currently need,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo maintained that the reforms are not just about speed but about national integrity, citing past cases where foreigners were able to illegally procure Nigerian passports. “Our passport must remain a true symbol of Nigerian identity,” he stressed.
