Nigeria’s lower chamber of Parliament (House of Representatives) has warned that the federal government risks incurring huge financial cost should it proceed with the termination of a current contract for the production of 10 million biometric passports for Nigerians.
To replace the existing infrastructure of the passport production process, which is currently managed by the current contractor, an estimated 22 billion Naira (47.5 million US dollars) will be needed.
This is one of the recommendations in a report from an Ad-Hoc Committee that was mandated by House to investigate a proposal by the federal government to take over production of biometrics. The contract, currently held locally by Iris Smart Technologies Limited, has been re-awarded to the federal government.
According to the Ad-Hoc Committee report, which was approved by the entire green chamber recently before its valedictory session to mark the end of the legislature, “it will be to the legal detriment of the Federal Government to unilaterally terminate this agreement for any reason until it runs its course, which is the production of 10 million e-Passports or the current remainder under the circumstances,” Voice of Nigeria reports.
To the lawmakers, any hastily or improperly planned transition in the production process will not only land the government in unnecessary legal conflicts, it will also lead to a disruption in the passport production process as “a duration of 36 to 48 months for the rollout of the new infrastructure,” is required.
In order to handle problems such as passport booklets scarcity, the committee calls for “negotiations” in order to “explore suitable options of how the e-Passport infrastructure can be maintained until the contract is fully performed.”
“The forex generated by Iris Technologies and NIS [Nigerian Immigration Service] CBN unlocks international passports sold in foreign countries [Central Bank of Nigeria] and allow NIS and Iris Technologies to have access to the revenue component generated to solve issues of scarcity of international passports before the domestication process,” it adds.
A parliamentary committee has also expressed concerns about the Nigerian Security Minting and Printing Company Limited MINT, which is vying for the contract to domesticate passports.
“MINT is not a technology company. MINT, as a security printer, cannot be a provider of e-Passport solutions. Therefore, it requires a technology partner if it must go into the e-Passport project,” notes the report.
While there are delays in passport distribution, they can also be a problem with the issuance of passports.
Nigerian Postal Service NIPOST says that it has partnered with NIS to develop an integrated passport delivery system.
In a recent chat, NIPOST CEO Sunday Adepoju and NIS Acting Comptroller General Caroline Wura-Ola Adepoju, agreed to introduce a service where “NIS will leverage NIPOST infrastructure for the collection of passports and adopting the postal network as an e-fulfilment centre for enhancing the digital economy,” according to Punch.
Wura-Ola said that the partnership would provide a platform for Nigerians to address the issues they face from the moment they apply for a passport to when it is ready to be collected.
Article Topics
Africa | biometric passport | biometrics | government purchasing | Iris Technologies | Nigeria