Onome Amuge
When the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) announced yet another upward review in the cost of international passports effective September 1, 2025, the backlash was immediate and fierce.
The 32-page, five-year passport now costs N100,000, while the 64-page, 10-year document has been priced at N200,000. Barely a year earlier, in September 2024, the fees had already been raised from N35,000 to N50,000 for the smaller booklet and from N70,000 to N100,000 for the larger one.
Officials defended the latest review as necessary to cover rising production costs, improve service delivery, and align Nigeria with global standards. But for many Nigerians, the issue goes beyond the sticker price. It reflects a state that repeatedly demands more from citizens without fixing systemic inefficiencies that make basic services unnecessarily complex. From middle-class families saving for their children’s studies abroad to traders who need passports for cross-border commerce, the outrage is not just about affordability but about fairness, efficiency, and the duplication that continues to plague Nigeria’s identity ecosystem.
Sticker shock in a fragile economy
The timing of the hike has intensified public anger. Inflation is still running at record highs, wages have barely kept pace with living costs, and the naira’s weakness continues to squeeze households.
“Securing a passport has become a project on its own. You have to save for months just to afford it. It feels like ordinary people are being punished for inefficiency we didn’t create,” said a Lagos-based trader who travels frequently to Dubai for goods.
For families who rely on international travel for education, medical care, or business, the increase adds another layer of pressure. A document that should be an enabler of mobility is now viewed as a luxury. “This is simply crushing,” said Rashidat Bello, a small-scale trader in Ibadan applying for her first passport. “How many market women can produce N100,000 for a passport? The government must think of struggling families,” she added
The perception that international passports are becoming elitist documents, according to many, underscores Nigeria’s wider inequality problem. In a country where the national minimum wage stands at N70,000 per month, the revised passport fees are out of reach for millions. For many households, it means saving for months to access a service that citizens in peer countries obtain with less friction and at significantly lower costs.
Beyond the price tag lies the duplication of Nigeria’s identification systems, considered a bigger structural problem. Over the past two decades, the federal government has introduced a string of identity schemes including the National Identity Number (NIN), Bank Verification Number (BVN) and the Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC). Each was billed as the definitive identity anchor. Each has instead added another layer of bureaucracy.
Citizens are still asked to present multiple documents for transactions that should require only one. Banks demand affidavits or newspaper publications for minor discrepancies. Passport applicants are required to resubmit information already captured in other databases. For small businesses, these inefficiencies translate into delays, higher compliance costs, and reduced productivity.
A 2023 report by consultancy SBM Intelligence estimated that Nigerian SMEs spend up to 15 per cent more time on documentation compared to peers in Kenya or Ghana. “The duplication of ID requirements is not just an inconvenience, it is an economic inefficiency that undermines competitiveness,” the report said.
SMEs bearing the brunt
Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of Nigeria’s economy, contributing nearly half of GDP and employing more than 70 per cent of the workforce. Yet they are among the most exposed to the inefficiencies of Nigeria’s fragmented identity systems. Entrepreneurs must juggle tax identification numbers, BVNs, NINs, corporate registration documents, and voter’s cards, often re-entering the same personal information across different platforms.
The consequences are significant, including reduced access to credit, missed government support programmes, slower productivity growth, and a more difficult operating environment for investors. For international businesses, these bureaucratic hurdles prolong onboarding processes and weaken Nigeria’s competitiveness against peers like Ghana, Rwanda, and Kenya, which have made more progress in harmonising identity databases.
A comparison with global peers
Nigeria’s identity struggles are not unique. India once faced a similar fragmentation before consolidating its ID systems into Aadhaar, a biometric-based platform that now underpins financial inclusion, government benefits, and digital services. By eliminating duplication and “ghost” beneficiaries, Aadhaar saved India an estimated $11 billion in its first decade, according to the World Bank.
Rwanda has also moved faster in streamlining its identity management, developing a digital ID system that serves as the backbone of its e-government strategy. Citizens in Rwanda can use a single number to access healthcare, banking, tax services, and business registration.
For Nigeria, harmonisation could transform passport processing, strengthen financial inclusion, reduce fraud, and improve its ease of doing business ranking, a metric closely watched by investors and multilateral institutions.
The official defence and citizen pushback
Authorities maintain that higher passport fees are unavoidable. The NIS says production costs have soared due to technology upgrades, enhanced security features, and foreign exchange pressures.
Tessy Jevwegaga, a Lagos-based travel agent, said the review was expected. “The government has been talking about technology and security upgrades for years. These things cost money. But Nigerians must see the results. If you say upgrades cost money, then the system must work, no excuses,” she said.
Critics argue that reforming identity management should precede any further fee increases. “A harmonised system anchored on the NIN would give Nigerians better value. Without it, fee hikes simply transfer the inefficiency burden onto citizens,” said a former senior official at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
The implications extend beyond Nigeria’s borders. This is even as Nigeria’s diaspora remits over $20 billion annually, a figure that dwarfs foreign direct investment inflows. Yet expensive, slow, and fragmented identity systems make it harder for diaspora Nigerians to renew passports, open bank accounts, or invest back home.
“The government wants diaspora capital for infrastructure bonds and SME funding, but the very people they are courting face bottlenecks in basic services like passport renewal,” said Azubike Jeffrey, a U.S based Nigerian.
International investors are equally concerned. Efficient identity systems underpin digital payments, credit scoring, and fintech innovation, sectors where Nigeria has repeatedly expressed ambitions to lead.
But fragmented ID databases discourage seamless integration, leaving Nigeria trailing peers such as Rwanda, Kenya, and even Côte d’Ivoire in building investor-friendly digital infrastructure.
Citizens’ stories of frustration
Across the country, passport applicants shared stories that underscore the wider frustrations.
Chidera Okeke, a postgraduate student heading to Canada, said she spent three months and nearly N150,000 in “extra fees” navigating backlogs and document verification. “If the government harmonised IDs, there would be no need for half these steps,” she said.
Mustapha Ibrahim, a Kano-based exporter, described the impact on trade. “Every delay in passport renewal means lost orders. Foreign buyers don’t wait. These inefficiencies cost us credibility.”
Ngozi Eze, who runs a catering business in Enugu, said her attempt to access a government SME loan failed because her NIN record did not match her BVN. “I had to hire a lawyer just to write affidavits for spelling mistakes. That cost me more than N30,000,” she said.
Towards a citizen-centred reform agenda
If the government is serious about digital transformation and improving ease of doing business, experts say harmonising identity databases must be the priority. A centralised, secure system anchored on the NIN could simplify passport processing, reduce duplication and fraud, enhance financial inclusion, strengthen tax collection and national security, and build trust with citizens, diaspora, and investors.
Analysts observed that the technology exists, but the challenge lies in political will, coordination among agencies, and ensuring transparency in implementation.
They further assert that until then, the international passport remains not just a travel document but a symbol of Nigeria’s struggle with inefficiency, a reminder that citizens and businesses are paying not only in naira but also in time, trust, and lost opportunity.
