More Nigerians relocating as passport issuance increases by 38%
According to Reports from a reliable source, the number of passports issued by the Nigeria Immigration Service increased by 38% between 2020 and 2021.
This represents an increase from 767,164 to 1,059,607 passports issued in 2020 and 2021.
According to NIS data, passport types included standard, official, diplomatic, and emergency travel certificates, refugee passports, and conventional travel documents.
A breakdown of that number revealed that 761,825 were standard passports, 2,024 were official, 444 were diplomatic, and 2,871 were ETCs.
The National Identification System (NIS) issued 1,041,537 standard passports, 2,811 official passports, 895 diplomatic passports, 14,214 ETCs, and 150 refugee passports in 2021.
In 2020 and 2021, that equates to approximately 2,081 and 2,853 passports issued every 24 hours.
According to the United Kingdom immigration report for the time period under consideration, 13,609 Nigerian healthcare workers were granted work visas. Only India has more practitioners, with 42,966.
According to the African Polling Institute’s Nigeria Social Cohesion Survey 2021, seven out of ten Nigerians would leave their country if given the chance.
In addition, a World Bank survey conducted that year revealed that 56,000 more Nigerians left the country than arrived.
Further research showed that over 19,000 skilled work and study visas were granted to Nigerians in 2019. However, by 2021, that figure had risen by 210 percent, to 59,000.
