The Federal Government says that it has reduced the fees it charges worship centres for issuing marriage certificates to couples.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Interiors, Mohammed Manga, on Monday.

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, was quoted to have said that the fees chargeable on worship centres for licence to issue “fresh” marriage certificates has been reduced from the initial N30,000 for two years to N6,000 yearly, “payable for five years in the first instance.”

This implies that a worship centre would now pay N12,000 for the licence for the same two years it would initially have paid N30,000 for. Also, the N30,000 now covers five years as against the earlier two years.

Aregbesola in a statement also said: For the Renewal of Marriage Licence by a Place of Public Worship, the sum of N5,000 has been approved per year, payable for three (3) years at each instance, as against the N30,000 earlier charged annually said.

The statement highlighted that the fees chargeable for Statutory Ordinary Marriage has also been cut down from N21,000 to N15,000 while that of Statutory Special Licence has been slashed from N35,000 to N25,000.

According to the statement, the changes will take effect from Wednesday, July 1, 2020.