By Francis Ogwo
The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has disclosed that in the past three years on, it has generated over N80 billion from the issuance of international passports and other services.
The Comptroller-General of NIS, Mohammed Babandede, while making a presentation before the Committee on Finance Committee interacting with agencies on the 2021-2023 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) on Monday, said the service generated N14.772 billion in 2018, N16.777 billion in 2019, and N5.714 billion in 2020 from passport services.
This on the heels of a recent disclosure from the House of Representatives Committee on Finance that about N72 billion of out of the N80 billion generated has been lost to foreign and other technical partners of the Service.
He disclosed that out of the revenue generated from passports in 2018, N12.181 billion went to Iris Smart Technologies; in 2019, N10.327 billion went to Iris; while in 2020, N3.508 billion went to the company.
The Comptroller General also stated that the Service generated N126.136 million in 2018, N110.316 million in 2019, and N38.372 million in 2020 from a technical partner, ECOWAS/AA.
He disclosed that from the revenue generated from ECOWAS/AA, New Works Solution Limited received N1.376 billion in 2018, N1.573 billion in 2019, and N378.833 million in 2020
The service also stated that the agency generated N2.075 billion in 2018, N2.715 billion in 2019, and N561.839 million in 2020 for address verification, out of which another technical partner, National E-government, got N302.069 million in 2018, N276.688 million in 2019 and N82.210 in 2020 respectively.
The presentation also showed that the service generated N20.358 billion in 2018, N40.786 billion in 2019, and N16.705 billion in 2020 on the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card (CERPAC), but a partner, FMI, collected N236.323 million in 2018, N2.056 billion in 2019 and N842.909 million in 2020.
It further stated that Immigration raked in N1.426 billion in 2018, N1.731 billion in 2019, and N763.240 million in 2020 from E-pass, out of which IPTELCOM gulped N2.442 billion in 2018, N3.343 billion in 2019 and N1.436 billion in 2020.
In a related development, the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Sub-Treasury IPTELCOM, got N4 billion from a remainder of the N68 billion generated from E-Pass and other services for the years 2018-2020
According to the reports, payments were made to foreign and local technical partners.
The companies include Iris Smart Technologies, NewWorks Solution Ltd, National E-government, Greater Washington, Contec (CERPAC-E-Pass), FMI (CERPAC-E-PASS), NIS (After-Payment To IPTELCOM), NSPMC, FIRS, Sub-Treasurer, and IPTELCOM, which got a dollar payment, totalling $92million dollars, representing over 80 percent of the revenue the NIS generated from 2018-2020.
While making his ruling, the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, James Faleke, made a resolution to assemble all the technical partners and agencies involved in the deductions of revenue from the service.
