A police character certificate - also called a police clearance certificate - is the Nigeria Police Force’s statement of whether you have a criminal record in Nigeria. Embassies ask for one with many visa and immigration applications, some employers ask for one before hiring, and foreign nationals leaving Nigeria are often asked for one by the next country they move to.
Apply online, and pay online
Applications go through the police’s own portal, the Police Specialized Services Automation Project (POSSAP), at possap.gov.ng. You fill in the form, upload your documents, choose the police command or formation where you will give your fingerprints, and pay.
Warning
Pay only through the portal. Payments made anywhere else - to an agent, to an officer, into a personal account - are not payments for the certificate, and nobody at a station can “speed it up” for cash.
What you need
- Your international passport or your NIN, and the details exactly as they appear on it
- Passport photographs in the format the portal asks for
- The reason you need it, and the country or organisation it is for
Names are where applications go wrong. The certificate must match your passport letter for letter; an embassy will reject one that does not.
The biometric appointment
After you apply, you attend the formation you chose, on your appointment date, for fingerprints and a photograph. Bring the printed application, the payment receipt and the original of the ID you applied with.
The police say the certificate is issued within days of the biometrics. In practice, allow a few weeks, and do not book travel around the official timeline.
How long it is good for
The certificate carries no expiry date of its own, but most foreign authorities only accept one issued within the last 6 months. Apply close to when you will submit it, not months ahead.
Using it abroad
Many embassies and immigration authorities want the certificate authenticated by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs before they will accept it. Requirements differ from country to country, so ask the authority you are submitting it to exactly what it needs - the original, a certified copy, an authentication stamp - before you start.
If you have already left Nigeria
If you lived in Lagos and now need a certificate from abroad, ask the Nigerian embassy or high commission in your country of residence how it handles applications. Fingerprints taken abroad have to reach the police in the form they accept, and that is where most delays happen.