The Comptroller General, Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Mohammad Babandede.
Babandede
disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja when members of the House of
Representatives Committee on Interior came on an oversight visit.
He said that
the NIS was working round the clock with the support of the Federal
Government to start the local production of the e-passports through the
Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Ltd. by 2018.
The News Agency
of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the e-passport is presently being
produced by Iris Smart Technology Nigeria Ltd. through its parent
company, Iris Corporation based in Malaysia.
The
comptroller-general said that the measure was to save cost, ensure
security of critical data base and create more jobs for Nigerians.
He said that
the Minister of Interior had set up a committee comprising critical
stakeholders to work out the modalities and implementation of the
project.
He said that
since there was a subsisting contract presently, all stakeholders
including the National Assembly would have to be carried along to
realise the laudable project.
The Chairman,
House Committee on Interior, Rep. Adams Jagaba, condemned the use of
foreign companies for the production of the passport and other services.
Jagaba said the
foreign companies ”go away with more than 70 percent of the revenue
generated from the production of the document while the Federal
Government take less than 30 percent.”
He said the
House of Representatives had conducted a public hearing on the matter
and explored ways to reverse the ugly trend. (NAN)
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