Author: CSNews

A Senate delegation led by Senator Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila, Chairman of the Committee on Petroleum Resources Downstream and lawmaker for Kano South, visited the Nigeria Immigration Service headquarters in Abuja on a fact finding mission over the relocation of passport production to a centralised facility. The Comptroller General, KN Nandap, represented by Deputy Comptroller General Franca Nwanneka, received the delegation alongside members of NIS top management. The visit was triggered by concerns raised by constituents and other Nigerians about the shift of passport printing away from local offices to the centralised hub in Abuja. Service officials used the meeting to walk the lawmakers through the reasoning behind the changeover, citing tighter security, the elimination of sharp practices along the processing chain and improved efficiency, transparency and accountability. Officials assured the delegation that every passport centre nationwide remains fully operational, with application submission, enrolment and biometric capture continuing as normal. The Service explained that the migration is happening in phases, both within Nigeria and at missions abroad, as part of a broader reform of passport administration championed by the Ministry of Interior. Senator Sumaila said he was satisfied with the explanations given and praised the reform, crediting the leadership of Minister of Interior Dr Olubunmi Tunji Ojo and the Comptroller General of Immigration. He pledged the National Assembly’s backing to see the initiative through. The exchange offers some reassurance to Nigerians worried that passport services near them could disappear, even as the country consolidates its production system in the capital. By Asiwaju Adekunle Saheed

Nigeria will switch on a new alphanumeric digital postcode system on October 1, 2026, assigning a unique, machine-readable address to every building in the country, including homes in rural communities that have never had a formal address. Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, disclosed the launch date while briefing President Bola Tinubu on the ministry’s flagship digital infrastructure projects. He said the system, approved by the Federal Executive Council earlier this year, will place Nigeria among a small group of countries using the advanced addressing technology worldwide. Unlike the old six-digit numeric postcodes introduced in the 1980s, which covered broad postal zones such as 100001 for Lagos Island, the new framework uses GIS mapping to assign precise codes to individual buildings, working even without internet access. Tijani said the absence of a reliable addressing system has long slowed emergency response, complicated deliveries and raised the cost of doing business, a gap the Postmaster General of the Nigerian Postal Service, Tola Odeyemi, estimated costs the economy between 50 billion and 80 billion naira annually in misdirected deliveries alone. Officials expect the system to strengthen national security coordination, speed up e commerce and logistics, and support emergency services, with the first states to be covered announced at launch before nationwide expansion continues into 2027. By Asiwaju Adekunle Saheed

The Federal Government has added 208 megawatts of bulk transmission capacity to the national grid following the commissioning of two newly upgraded substations in Lagos, a move officials say will strengthen electricity supply to some of the country’s busiest commercial and industrial corridors. The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, inaugurated the projects on Monday at Ijora and Apapa Road, describing them as more than engineering feats and calling Apapa one of the commanding heights of the Nigerian economy. At the Ijora Transmission Substation, two new 100MVA transformers lifted installed capacity from 90MVA to 230MVA, adding 112MW to the network. At Apapa Road, a new Gas Insulated Substation replaced an ageing outdoor transformer that had served as a stopgap since the original 1985 facility was decommissioned, adding another 96MW and tripling that site’s capacity from 60MVA to 180MVA. The Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz, said the upgrades would increase the volume of bulk power available to the Eko Electricity Distribution Company for onward supply to Apapa Causeway, Ijora, Amukoko, Ajegunle, Apapa Wharf, Tin Can Island and other commercial zones. The Ijora project was funded by the World Bank while the Apapa upgrade was backed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, both executed in partnership with TCN. Tegbe linked the intervention to President Bola Tinubu’s ambition of building a one trillion-dollar economy, and said the ministry plans to commission twenty transmission projects nationwide before the end of the year, with a target of wheeling 6,000 megawatts comfortably to the grid by December. By Asiwaju Adekunle Saheed