Nigeria’s passport front offices to open across UK – Minister

Passport front offices are set to open in several major cities throughout the UK, including Cardiff (Wales), Manchester, and Birmingham, in three months, according to Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.

Last night, the minister took to Channels Television to address the worries of Nigerians living abroad on the challenges they have encountered when trying to renew their passports at diplomatic missions.

Honestly, I can only think of two locations where we are now facing this problem. In the United Kingdom, specifically, London, and in the United States, specifically, New York, I think. Tunji-Ojo admitted that the concentration of Nigerians was the cause of that.

He singled out the United Kingdom as a country with multiple reported cases of the virus and claimed that opening passport front offices in major cities by February 2024 was the sole viable answer.

“Get ready for a long haul. However, the minister assured Nigerians that front offices will be operational in many cities by February of next year, including Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff in Wales, and Scotland.

“Once we have this, the whole passport procurement system will be more efficient, and the waiting period for Nigerians will be reduced,” the official said.

Given that the UK only has one passport office, Tunji-Ojo ascribed the issue to that fact.

He said that Nigerians residing in distant places like Edinburgh (Scotland), Cardiff (Wales), Belfast (North Ireland), Manchester (England), and Birmingham (England) were compelled to travel to London in order to obtain their new passports.

Given the large number of Nigerians now living in the country, the minister of interior has called for an investigation into the daily capacity of the immigration office and the number of individuals requesting passports.