Nigerian Govt. extends deadline on MR passport to April 30, 2011

The Federal Government of Nigeria on Tuesday announced the extension deadline for expiration of the Machine Readable Passport (MRP) to the Harmonised ECOWAS Electronic (Smart) Passport, otherwise called e-passport from December 31, 2010 to April 30, 2011.

The Minister of Interior, Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho, who made this known during the presentation of his ministry’s scorecard for 2010, in Abuja, said the December 31 deadline earlier announced was not feasible because a lot of complaints had been received by the ministry from most Nigerians abroad who were yet to obtain the e-passport.

He disclosed that in order to protect and meet the expected high demand for the e-passport from Nigerians in diaspora, the Nigerian Immigration Service had procured 15 mobile enrolment and 135 officers had been selected and trained for passport intervention programme in the six continents of the world.