The Nigerian Embassy in Doha, Qatar, has reduced the processing time for passport issuance and renewal to about two weeks following a special intervention exercise.

The improvement followed a 10-day passport exercise held in Doha from August 11 to 21, during which applications from 751 Nigerians were processed.

Of the applicants attended to, 441 applied for five-year passports while 310 requested 10-year travel documents.

The embassy began distributing the newly produced passports on September 18, about two weeks after applicants completed their biometric capture.

Nigeria’s Ambassador to Qatar, Mahmood Yakubu, described the development as an important step toward improving consular services for Nigerians living in the country.

He said the faster turnaround was particularly important because passports are required for international travel, employment, residency and other official purposes.

The embassy said it would continue working to provide Nigerians in Qatar with timely and transparent consular services.

The passport intervention programme was organised to address pending applications and reduce backlogs involving new passport applications and renewals.

The development comes as Nigerian diplomatic missions continue efforts to improve passport services and reduce waiting periods for citizens living abroad.