SERAP urges Tinubu to reverse passport fee hike
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Bola Tinubu to direct the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo and the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Kemi Nanna Nandap, to immediately reverse the “arbitrary, unlawful, unjustified, and excessive passport fees” of between N100,000 and N200,000.
The NIS, last week, announced that from September 1, 2025, applications made within Nigeria would attract new fees of N100,000 for the 32-page, five-year validity passport and N200,000 for the 64-page, 10-year validity passport. The price increase came barely a year after a similar increase on September 1, 2024.
In the letter at the weekend, signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said the unlawfully high fees amounted to a discriminatory denial of access to a passport to millions of socially and economically vulnerable Nigerians and unlawful restrictions of their other citizenship rights.
According to the body, the Minister of Interior and the Comptroller General of the NIS ought to comply with the Nigerian Constitution and the country’s international human rights obligations in the exercise of their constitutional and statutory duties.
The organisation warned that the increased fees would hit hardest those at the bottom of the economy, stressing that the Minister of Interior and the Comptroller General of the NIS had a legal responsibility to ensure an appropriate balance between the imposition of excessive passport fees on citizens and the safeguarding of citizens’ rights.
SERAP’s reaction came as the Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA) urged the Federal Government to discontinue subsidising the cost of international passports and instead channel the funds to the welfare of inmates at the Nigeria Correctional Services (NCoS) and procurement of ammunition for the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
The group, in a statement signed by its National Chairman, Bright Ngolo, said the Ministry of Interior had made significant efforts in clearing over N25 billion obligation incurred on passport importation, which demonstrated the need for prudent management of resources.
According to Ngolo, subsidising international passports, which are dollar-denominated, is not economically justifiable. The group believes that the huge sums spent on subsidies can be better utilized to improve living standards for inmates in correctional facilities.
“We note with satisfaction the efforts made by the Interior Ministry under Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, in clearing over N25 billion obligation incurred by his predecessors in office on the importation of Nigerian passports alone,” he stated, suggesting prioritising national identity database capture through the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and scaling down on international passport rush.
