ABUJA — The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has successfully enrolled 8,552 Nigerians living across the United Kingdom, Canada, Qatar, and the United States under a targeted passport intervention exercise designed to clear application backlogs and ease consular access for citizens in the diaspora.
The figures were disclosed in an official statement issued on Monday, September 21, 2026, by the Service Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller of Immigration Akinsola Akinlabi. Executed under the direct directive of the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the special intervention was structured in close collaboration with Nigerian diplomatic missions and diaspora community leaders to bring passport processing directly to major population clusters.
According to official metrics provided by the NIS, the United Kingdom recorded the largest turnout, with 5,099 applicants successfully captured across special processing hubs in London and Manchester. Owing to high demand, passport production and dispatch operations in the UK are being carried out concurrently with live enrollments to guarantee rapid delivery.
In Canada, immigration teams captured 2,257 applicants across multiple provinces, spanning Manitoba, Toronto, Saskatoon, Alberta, and New Brunswick. Meanwhile, the Middle East operational exercise in Qatar recorded 751 enrollments during its August run, and the United States leg—conducted between September 7 and September 15—processed 535 Nigerians across Chicago, Michigan, and Milwaukee.
The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Kemi Nanna Nandap, emphasized that these mobile intervention exercises operate alongside regular diplomatic mission arrangements to alleviate the travel burdens of Nigerians residing far from permanent consular posts. The NIS reiterated its commitment to sustaining seamless, technology-driven passport issuance frameworks for both domestic citizens and the global Nigerian diaspora.
