EDITORIAL: LinesWatch
The announcement by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) of yet another sharp increase in passport fees could not have come at a worse time. Effective September 1, 2025, the cost of the 32-page, five-year passport will now stand at ₦100,000, while the 64-page, ten-year passport has been pegged at ₦200,000—both amounts doubled from the last increase approved barely a year ago.
For a government already grappling with record inflation, soaring unemployment, and a population gasping under the weight of economic meltdown, this decision reads less like policy and more like punishment. At a time when citizens are struggling to keep food on the table and transport fares have tripled, the Nigerian passport—once a modest document—is fast becoming a luxury.
The most glaring impact of this decision falls on Nigerians desperately seeking opportunities abroad. The “Japa wave” is not merely a fad; it is the inevitable outcome of a system that has failed to provide jobs, security, and hope. To those who see migration as the only viable route to survival, the new fees are not just numbers on a policy paper—they are higher walls erected between despair at home and the slim promise of a better life abroad.
Consider a young graduate in Lagos, scraping together savings to process a passport in order to pursue a scholarship overseas. Overnight, the goalposts have shifted. A family of four in Benue, hoping to relocate for safety and stability, now faces the daunting reality of paying between ₦400,000 and ₦800,000 simply to acquire passports—before visas, flights, or resettlement costs are even considered.
Yes, the Immigration Service insists the increment is to “maintain the quality and integrity of the Nigerian passport.” But Nigerians cannot eat this. They cannot pay school fees with it. And they cannot reconcile successive hikes in just one year with a government that claims to be sensitive to their plight. Policy must be anchored not just on sustaining quality, but on protecting accessibility.
The timing of this development is as damaging as the hike itself. With frustration mounting across the country and the economy at breaking point, citizens see the passport not as a travel document but as an escape hatch—a ticket to survival. By doubling the cost, the government risks sending a dangerous signal: that the right to seek greener pastures is to be reserved only for the privileged few.
This is a step too far. The Federal Government must revisit the decision urgently. Nigerians are already being priced out of healthcare, education, transport, and even food. To now be priced out of the very document that offers them hope is both cruel and counterproductive.
The passport hike comes at the wrong time, in the wrong way, and at the wrong cost for millions of struggling Nigerians. If the government is truly listening to its people, this is one policy that must be reconsidered—before hope itself becomes another item out of reach.
For millions of Nigerians whose only hope of survival lies beyond the country’s borders, the latest passport hike feels like the state has tightened the cage around them. The economic meltdown has already left many gasping for air, and now, with the cost of the only legal escape route doubled in less than two years, the dream of “japa” is fast becoming a privilege of the wealthy. For ordinary citizens—teachers, nurses, artisans, and unemployed youth—the message is clear: even leaving is no longer affordable. What was once a difficult journey has now been turned into an almost impossible one, trapping many in a nation where the doors keep closing on every side.
This is why the government must rethink the timing and scale of this hike. At a moment when Nigerians are struggling with food inflation, joblessness, and an unrelenting cost-of-living crisis, raising the price of passports amounts to shutting the door of hope in people’s faces. A more sensitive approach—whether through staggered increases, subsidies for vulnerable groups, or a broader reform of the passport issuance system—is urgently needed while the government intensify efforts on improving the economy to make the domestic landscape more favourable. Anything less will only deepen despair and fuel resentment in a country already bursting at the seams with frustration.