Nigeria’s leading rights watchdog has called on President Bola Tinubu to overturn a steep rise in passport fees, warning that the decision is “arbitrary, unlawful and a violation of human rights”.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) condemned the new charges announced by the Nigeria Immigration Service, which will see citizens pay ₦100,000 (£53) for a five-year, 32-page passport and ₦200,000 (£106) for a 10-year, 64-page document from 1 September 2025. The move comes less than a year after a similar increase.
In a letter to Tinubu dated 30 August and signed by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP said the hike would “amount to a discriminatory denial” of access to travel documents, effectively stripping millions of poor and vulnerable Nigerians of their constitutional rights.
“The unlawfully high fees amount to a discriminatory denial of access to a passport to millions of socially and economically vulnerable Nigerians and unlawful restrictions of their other citizenship rights,” the organisation wrote.
It argued that the new charges were “excessive, disproportionate and incompatible” with the fundamental rights and directive principles guaranteed under Nigeria’s 1999 constitution. The watchdog also warned that the policy would deepen the economic hardship already faced by citizens.
“The increased fees will hit hardest those at the bottom of the economy,” SERAP said, adding that the interior minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, and the immigration chief, Kemi Nandap, had failed to consider the financial realities of most Nigerians before approving the hike.
SERAP has given the government seven days to reverse the decision or face legal action.
