The Nigeria Immigration Service NIS, says beginning from January
2018, it would not be issuing a passport to any Nigerian that does not
have his or her National Identification Number that is being issued by
the National Identity Management Commission.

Comptroller-General of the NIS, Mr. Mohammed Babandede, said this
when he spoke to state house correspondents after a meeting of the
database harmonization committee at Aso Rock, Abuja yesterday August
1st. According to Babandede, the rule will apply to both first-time
applicants and those that come for renewal.

“The biggest problem we are facing is that everybody is deploying his
own technology; but harmonisation of data will solve that. We have
agreed that from January 1, 2018, anybody who is going to apply for the
Nigerian passport, whether renewal or fresh application, must first have
a National Identity Number. Why we are doing this is that we want to
ease process of doing business in Nigeria. There is no need for you to
go and have your biometrics captured the NIMC and then you come and
capture again with the Nigeria Immigration Service. Once you give us
your NIN, we will collect the biometrics from the NIMC and produce your
passport.”he said