The Federal Government has explained its decision to maintain the current passport fee for Nigerians living abroad, unlike the recent increase implemented for those residing in the country.

The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made this clarification while speaking to newsmen in Abuja.

Tunji-Ojo explained that the booklet used for Nigerian passports is imported and priced in dollars, meaning that as the naira-to-dollar exchange rate rises, the cost of the passport will also increase.

However, he noted that since Nigerians living abroad already deal in foreign currencies like the dollar, there is no need for an upward revision of their passport fees, so the price remains unchanged for them.

The Minister added that the goal of their ministry is to provide service, and not add to the burden of Nigerians with increase in prices.

“The booklet is imported which is dollar denominated. And at a time when you look at conversion rate of the dollar, there is no way the old price wouldn’t have led to subsidy. As a matter of fact, it was leading to subsidy.

“And we cannot do that. That’s why you realize that we didn’t increase the price of the passport in diaspora because the passport price in diaspora is dollar-dominated. Regardless of exchange, it has no effect.

“We are not looking at making profits off Nigerians. We are looking at serving the people. But when you look at how much a passport is supplied for beyond the logistics and the immigration officers, and convert it to naira, you’ll realize that the price when dollar N400 and when dollar is now N1,600 cannot be the same. That’s why we increased it from N34,000 to N60,000.

“When you look at even the rate of increase in terms of the exchange rate, the rate is lower.We increased to about 45%, but meanwhile the exchange rate has increased even more than that,” Tunji-Ojo said.

The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) says it will address allegations of ticket racketeering on the Abuja-Kaduna train service (AKTS).

In a statement on Saturday, Yakub Mahmood, NRC’s deputy director of public relations, said some officials take advantage of the difficulties some passengers have with the online booking platform to engage in ticket racketeering.

He also appealed to the public, especially the passengers, to bear with the NRC, saying that the situation would soon be brought under control.

“Information has reached the management of the NRC on difficulties of passengers in obtaining tickets online resulting in ticket racketeering on the Abuja-Kaduna Train Service (AKTS) in recent times,” NRC said.

He also appealed to the public, especially the passengers, to bear with the NRC, saying that the situation would soon be brought under control.

“Information has reached the management of the NRC on difficulties of passengers in obtaining tickets online resulting in ticket racketeering on the Abuja-Kaduna Train Service (AKTS) in recent times,” NRC said.

“In order to arrest the ugly situation, the management has set up a team headed by the deputy director of ICT to investigate.

“In the meantime, the Managing Director of NRC, Mr Freeborn Okhiria, has directed Mr Mohammed Modibo Ibrahim to report and take over as the Manager of the AKTS with immediate effect.

“The Managing Director also directed the director of operation to increase train service frequencies on the route within the next two weeks.”

On January 22, 2021, the federal government launched the N900 million e-ticketing platform for the online purchase of train tickets on the Abuja-Kaduna service.

NRC said the e-ticketing platform was introduced to reduce the physical contact between passengers and staff of the corporation.

In November, the corporation launched the electronic ticketing platform for the Lagos-Ibadan and Itakpe-Warri train services.

The naira depreciated to N1,700 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday.

At the end of trading hours, the naira depreciated by 1.49 percent compared to the N1,675/$ traded on Thursday.

The N1,700 per dollar is the lowest the naira has depreciated since February 19, when the naira recorded a low of N1,730/$.

Currency traders, also known as street traders, in Lagos, quoted the buying rate of the local currency at N1,680/$ and the selling rate at N1,700/$ — leaving a profit margin of N20.

Currency traders, also known as street traders, in Lagos, quoted the buying rate of the local currency at N1,680/$ and the selling rate at N1,700/$ — leaving a profit margin of N20.

WEEK-LONG FLUCTUATIONS

At the parallel market on Monday, the naira depreciated to N1,665/$ from N1,663 on September 20.

Maintaining the depreciation streak, the local currency fell further to N1,670 and N1,680 on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

However, the naira rebounded to N1,675 on Thursday.

At the official FX market, the local currency depreciated to N1,562.66 on Monday — from N1,541.52 on September 20.

Subsequently, the naira further depreciated to N1,658.48 on Tuesday and N1,667.72 on Wednesday, before appreciating to N1,576.1 on Thursday.

On January 29, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it had begun implementing a comprehensive plan to improve liquidity in the Nigerian FX markets in the short, medium, and long term.

The apex bank said the FX reforms were designed to streamline and harmonise multiple exchange rates, promote transparency, and lessen the likelihood of arbitrage opportunities.

On September 25, Olayemi Cardoso, governor of CBN, said the multiple interest rate hikes have restored confidence in the naira.