Immigration generates N38.5bn, $29.9m in 2017, says C-G

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) generated a total revenue of N38.532 billion and 29.9 million dollars in 2017.

The Comptroller-General of NIS, Mr Muhammad Babandede, made this known at an operational review meeting with zonal coordinators and state controllers of the agency in Abuja on Wednesday.

Babandede also said that the NIS made a total payment of N38, 531 in the year under review, leaving a surplus of one million naira.

He said that the dollar component (29.9 million dollars) was deposited into the Federation Account in line with financial regulations.

Giving a breakdown of the funds generated, he said N14 billion was generated from passport issuance, N72 million from ECOWAS travel documents, and N1.9 billion from address verification fees paid by passport applicants.

Babandede said that N186 million was realised from non-refundable administrative fees, N20 billion from issuance of resident permits and N1.6 billion from e-pass (penalties paid by foreigners, who overstayed in the country).

On the dollar component of the revenue, he said 28 million dollars was generated from passport and one million dollars from the issuance of visa on arrival.

The NIS said the monies were generated under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, thus the expenditure involved payments to private companies for services rendered to the agency.

The breakdown of the expenditure shows that N10 billion was paid to Iris Technologies, N1.4 billion to New works Solutions, N303 million to the National e-Government, and N744 million to Greater Washington.

Babandede said that N15 billion was paid to Contec, the NIS technical partner on resident permits, N219 million to the Federal Ministry of Interior for supervision of the issuance of resident permits, and N2 billion to NIS “payment to IP Telcom’’.

The comptroller-general said N268 million was paid to the Nigeria Security and Minting Company for services rendered to the agency, one billion naira to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as tax on services rendered by the NIS.

The NIS boss further said that N5 billion was paid to government as sub-treasury, while N101 million went to IP Telcom for document-scanning services rendered to the NIS.