President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that the validity of passports issued in the country should be increased from five to 10 years. Muhammed Babandede, comptroller-general of Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), made the disclosure on Thursday when he visited the Ikoyi passport office in Lagos.

He said the president also approved improved security features and quality for the passport booklets.

“He (Buhari) has approved 10-year validity for passports which is great news. When the report comes, passports will be valid for 10 years which is great news especially for adults from the age of 18 and above,” he said.

“Though people will pay more, if they can pay more and get the booklets quickly, it’s good with improved security for 10 years validity. They would pay more but the document would be available, that’s good.

“Ten years after the enrolment of the e-passport system, we need to improve the security features. You can’t keep documents for 10 years without seeing decreased values in them, so we are improving the security features which would raise the standards of the passports.”

Babandede said the new changes will ease the stress of renewing passports and also help the country.

“And we will ensure it is done before the end of this year because the booklet has to change,” he added.

The service had in April said it will no longer issue passports to those who do not have national identity card number.