The Buhari administration is considering
extending validity period for international
passports from its current five to 10 years, the
Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration
Service has said.

Muhammad Babandede told reporters in his office
on Saturday that Nigerians should expect an
announcement on the policy changes in the
coming months.
“We have submitted a memo to the president and
we believe we’ll get a positive response to that
soon,” Mr. Babandede said.

The immigration chief said the review was the
government’s response to several months of
complaints from Nigerians and other foreign
elements who said the five-year validity period is
too short.
Citizens demanded that the NIS should reverse to
the old policy that Nigeria had in place before
2007. Back then, the Nigerian passport was valid
for 10 years with additional five years validity for
renewal.

“We have received complaints that passports only
take five years,” Mr. Babandede said. “The
international community is not happy, wondering
why passports will only be five years.”
“They’re saying it should be 10 years and we’re
already considering that. We need to make sure
that we have age validity expansion.”
He said the current validity period was
unnecessary for people above 18 years because
they’re already fully grown and rarely wear a
totally different look.

“For example, in some places in the world, they
say if you’re below the age of 18, you can have
five-year validity passport. But if you’re above the
age of 18, you can have 10-year validity because
your physical features may not change again
within 10 years,” Mr. Babandede said.
The Nigerian government implemented a
downward review of international passports from
10 to five years when the country adopted the e-
passport with multi-level security model on July
27, 2007