Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has launched the Electronic Temporary Passport on behalf of the government. The Electronic Temporary Passport is expected to cater for Nigerians who want to return home but their international passport is not available.
The temporary Passport is a four-page document and it only suffices for one-way return journey to Nigeria mainly on emergencies.
The launch was disclosed in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Sunday James, recently.
The statement reveals that an e-temporary passport replaces the paper-type emergency travel certificate formerly issued by Nigerians in Diaspora who are desirous of coming home but do not have a regular standard passport. Also it reveals that the electronic temporary passport possesses every feature of the standard passport but covers only one trip.
While speaking at the event, Aregbesola stated that the passport will meet the problems of Nigerians abroad who want to urgently return home as well as Nigerians that are being sent home by their host countries but don’t possess a valid passport.
The statement also revealed that the Temporary Passport is ICAO compliant and has a validity of 30 days before the date of travel and it does not replace the Nigerian Passport in any way as it only serves a temporary purpose in the case of either loss or misplacement of the Nigerian Passport by a Nigerian abroad.
In his remark, the Controller General of NIS, Muhammad Babandede, said the introduction of the document offers another way to engage with Nigerians in Diaspora in a bid to address their emergency travel needs and stressed that the document can be issued to applicants irrespective of their age.
He made it knwon that the Emergency Travel Certificate that has been replaced was a huge security threat to Nigeria and the global community as it was an ordinary paper that lacked necessary security features of a travel document.
He added that the temporary Passport will catalyse Nigeria’s desire for effective identity management as it possesses a chip and surface personalization which is an upgrade of the current Electronic Passport Management System (EPMS).
