Nigeria House of Reps warns against rushed biometric passport domestication project

Nigeria’s lower chamber of Parliament (House of Representatives) has warned that the federal government risks incurring huge financial cost should it proceed with the termination of a current contract for the production of 10 million biometric passports for Nigerians.

An estimated 22 billion Naira (US$47.5 million) will be required to replace the existing passport infrastructure run by the current contractor if the government wants to take over the production process.

This is part of recommendations contained in a report by an Ad-Hoc Committee which was mandated by the House to investigate and advise on a proposed federal government move to take over the production of biometric passports, a contract currently held by a local company Iris Smart Technologies Limited.

According to the Ad-Hoc Committee report, which was approved by the entire green chamber recently before its valedictory session to mark the end of the legislature, “it will be to the legal detriment of the Federal Government to unilaterally terminate this agreement for any reason until it runs its course, which is the production of 10 million e-Passports or the current remainder under the circumstances,” Voice of Nigeria reports.

To the lawmakers, any hastily or improperly planned transition in the production process will not only land the government in unnecessary legal conflicts, it will also lead to a disruption in the passport production process as “a duration of 36 to 48 months for the rollout of the new infrastructure,” is required.

In order to handle problems such as passport booklets scarcity, the committee calls for “negotiations” in order to “explore suitable options of how the e-Passport infrastructure can be maintained until the contract is fully performed.”

“The forex generated by Iris Technologies and NIS [Nigerian Immigration Service] through the sales of international passports in foreign countries should be unlocked by CBN [Central Bank of Nigeria] and allow NIS and Iris Technologies to have access to the revenue component generated to solve issues of scarcity of international passports before the domestication process,” it adds.

Also, the parliamentary committee expressed reservations with the Nigerian Security Minting and Printing Company Limited (MINT) which is positioning itself for the passport domestication contract.

“MINT is not a technology company. MINT is a security printer and cannot be an e-Passport solution provider. Therefore, it requires a technology partner if it must go into the e-Passport project,” notes the report.

While there have been issues with passport issuance, delays are also sometimes reported in the distribution process.

To proffer solutions to this situation, the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) says it is partnering with the NIS for an integrated passport delivery model.

In a recent chat, NIPOST CEO Sunday Adepoju and NIS Acting Comptroller General Caroline Wura-Ola Adepoju, agreed to introduce a service where “NIS will leverage NIPOST infrastructure for the collection of passports and adopting the postal network as an e-fulfilment centre for enhancing the digital economy,” according to Punch.

The partnership will provide a platform to respond to the problems faced by many Nigerians from the time of applying for passports to when the document is produced and ready for collection, Wura-Ola assured.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometric passport  |  biometrics  |  government purchasing  |  Iris Technologies  |  Nigeria