Application for Nigerian international passports declined by 80.43 per cent in 2017, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has said. The NBS, in its Immigration Statistics for 2017 stated that a total of 720,958 passport applications were received in 2017 compared to 3,684,288 in 2016. According to the report, “This represents about 80.43% negative growth. 127,882 of the 2017 figure are minor, 544,473 are adults and the remaining 48,603 are senior citizen.” A total of 152,163 passports were issued at the foreign missions in 2017 as against 172,824 issued in 2016 just as the number of visa issuance at the foreign missions stood at 115,150 . The NBS said: “This represents 11.95% negative growth. The number of lost and stolen passports re-issued in 2017 was put at 13,450,†it added. It, however, disclosed that the Immigration Service, generated N35,724,482,338.26 in 2017 as against N36,175,778,205.77 locally generated revenue in 2016.
