The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Kemi Nandap, has explained that its adoption of tech innovation is enhancing security at Nigerian borders.
The CG said the newly deployed border management system of the Service is enhancing target-based profiling through the interactive advanced passenger information and passenger name record technology at an unprecedented level of efficiency.
This facility, according to her, helps the service to know and properly profile individuals travelling to Nigeria before they leave wherever they were coming from, for national security.
A Thursday statement noted that Nandap said this at a just-concluded two-day interactive session on government-citizen engagement, themed “Assessing Electoral Promises: Fostering Government–Citizen Engagement for National Unity,” held in Kaduna.
The high-level forum had governors, service chiefs, ministers, and other top government officials in attendance.
“The border management system that we have deployed in this administration has a lot of target-based profiling,” she said.
“We have the interactive advanced passenger information and passenger name record. What that does in terms of national security is that airlines send the data of their passengers coming to Nigeria. And it allows us to profile every one of them before they come in, for national security,” she added.
She also said the interests of communities at the nation’s borders would be prioritised in the ongoing immigration service recruitment process.
This, according to the CG, was to strengthen the relationship between the service and the border communities and enhance collaboration, intelligence gathering and security at the borders.
“Most importantly, we do a lot of border community engagement and outreach, and I think the President has been very magnanimous, because he has graciously approved that we start the ongoing process of recruitment.
“And the recruitment we are doing now is going to be target-based, where we liaise with community leaders and ask them to give us credible sons and daughters of their community, because we have realised that we stand a chance of losing out on information and collaboration with the border communities, who are very crucial to the success of our jobs as immigration officers, if we don’t engage them.”
She added that migrants entering the country through the land borders from the ECOWAS neighbouring countries were registered at the numerous control posts at the borders, over 30 of which she said were located in the northern part of the country.
