When I applied for a passport in 2001, the Nigerian High Commission was marooned in the infamous Fleet Street address in what can best be described as a dingy basement that was not fit for sorting mail. However, the Nigerians working there on that day gave me no problems and issued my passport following their own guidelines on their untidy website. The process was straight-forward and I suffered no delays or inconveniences. You see I like to be prepared and had all the necessary supporting documents and accompanying requirements. I still went away saddened that it could not have been a more fitting venue for citizens of Africa’s most populous nation and a top ten oil producing nation.
Ahead of a Christmas trip to the motherland in 2009, it was time to renew passports for my wife and my two girls who were making the trip. My mother’s passport too was ready to be renewed and so off I went to the High Commission’s website. From the much better website, to the new and better location to a video welcome from the High Commissioner, it was obvious that a lot of work had been going on. Clearly, everyone felt like me that we had to improve and improve we did.
On to the application process and instantly I could spot a point for nerves. All of the processing was now being done online. You are directed to http://www.immigration.gov.ng/ where you fill out an application form and, with the exception of issues about the drop down menus only showing Nigerian towns, it works. You then get the option to pay for your passport and at the time the options were either to pay in dollars via Google Checkout or in Naira using Nigerian Immigration Service pre-pay debit cards which you can buy at a bank in Nigeria. I have an excellent brother-in-law in Nigeria and within minutes he had acquired the said cards and sent me by text the card numbers, expiry dates and PIN. A few minutes later, the online platform carries out a live verification of the card details and I have an appointment date for the passports.
At the time all I could think that could have improved the process was the issue about the drop down cities and perhaps a way to “shopping basket” applications so that they all get the same day for appointment as a group. But this was brilliant improvement so I was happy enough. This was also time to change to the new biometric ECOWAS passports so finger printing had to be done and that was pretty straight-forward. I did not go but the family reported a stress free day.
My passport had 8 months validity on it and so I was happy that with such improvements it was going to be a breeze when the time came. Fast forward May 2010 and I decide to start making arrangements to renew mine. On getting online to the immigration service website, I am welcomed with a message that they were making further improvements. I was elated. No one had waited all of ten years to improve things further!!
Anyway, several weeks later I returned and the improvements were in place. So now you still had the naught drop downs with Nigeria only cities BUT they had “improved” the payment system!! You still had the choice of paying in dollars via Google Checkout but if you wanted to pay in Naira you now had to:
1. Print off an acknowledgement slip with a specific number
2. Send this number to someone in Nigeria
3. They take this number and go to the bank
4. The bank accept the money and put in the number
5. They then issue you with a confirmation number
6. The person texts this back to you
7. You go back in to the website
8. Then enter that number to confirm payment
9. Then you get an interview date
Or do you? I will get back to that in a moment.
So basically, for some reason, the improvement involved taking an automated system, removing the automated part of it and making it manual. I cannot begin to know what drove this sort of improvement except cost but surely this cannot more efficient than what was there before running off the INTERSWICTH platform. How did the PAY4ME folk sell this as a better service and who agreed with them? What was the basis for switching to this system?
Anyway, on with my passport renewal and I printed off my appointment date for the 8 September 2010. As this was several months away, I had time to get my requirements together and I was set. The baby in the house though had other ideas and come 7 September, I had a confirmation slip that now had the previous week’s cornflakes taking residence so I decided to log back in and reprint a fresh confirmation letter for my interview the next day.
The same next day I had an evening flight to Washington D.C. to catch. But more relevant was the upcoming 50th Jubilee Celebrations of Nigeria which coincided with that of my school association. There were also plans to celebrate my secondary school class’ silver anniversary of finishing high school. So I had a couple of pretty important dates in the diary for October.
So imagine my shock horror when I logged back in to reprint my confirmation number to find out that it now had a new appointment date of 12 November. Panic set in and first thing in the morning I called the High Commission and after explaining my dilemma to the gentleman that answered, he advised me to come with both letters to the embassy as planned. When I got there, and after a couple of hours of waiting, the cashier informed me that even though the first confirmation had given me a date, it was not the valid date as it was missing a line that said “payment confirmed”. Looking at both sheets of paper, it was obvious what she was talking about. However, it was the same confirmation number that had produced both print outs and that number can only have been issued upon full payment at the bank.
I was running late for my flight to Washington and simply did not have the luxury of hanging about to argue the toss and so I resigned myself to my fate and left.
We have certainly not improved the process and I firmly believe that the previous payment process with INTERSWITCH was more straight-forward and efficient. Maybe it had problems and others did not find it equally smooth. But this is my experience.
I missed two important trips to Nigeria and went back on the 12 November. The process from there all in was smooth and straight-forward. However, I will suggest that a lot of time is wasted at the High Commission waiting for what amounts to a biometric collection for the passport application and this can be improved by simplifying the reception process where you hand in your Postal Order. At the moment it amounts to a full day for the basic task of handing in your postal order and getting your finger prints taken. We can do better than that. Well done to the High Commissioner and the team who have really improved things since my last visit. Well done also to the team that has brought business centre services to the High Commission. This has helped a lot of people that previously had to leave the embassy to do simple things like photocopies and buy postal orders. These are welcome improvements. Let us go a step further and make it a more efficient service.
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