The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, says Nigerians returning from foreign countries will soon enjoy their arrivals at the nation’s airports with the introduction of e-gate.
E-gate is an electronic gate – just like a scanner – that has all the modern facilities required to scan passengers.
This will be specifically for those who just came into the country via the airports.
The processing will be easier and faster, devoid of the usual delay.
The Minister made the promise on Monday while inspecting the Nigeria Immigration Service’s ongoing installation of an e-gate (scanner) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
He said the era of unnecessary delay of passengers who just came into the country due to manual scanning by Immigration officers would be a thing of the past by the time the project came to fruition.
Tunji-Ojo recalled that the Federal Government had promised Nigerians that upon their arrival into the country, they would enjoy a seamless passage at the airports through e-gate unlike in the past.
He said: “So, I came to inspect the e-gate project that is ongoing and I am happy with the progress of work being done so far.
“Eight e-gates are to be installed at the Abuja airport.
“But I told them that eight will not be acceptable by me and that they have to increase it by two to make it 10.
“So far, they have succeeded in installing some and from the assurances given by the contractor, the remaining ones will be delivered before the end of the month to make it 10 in all.”
The Minister explained that the more the number of e-gates, the lesser the waiting period by passengers.
Tunji-Ojo said: “You know the more the e-gate, then the easier it will be for passengers to be cleared and looking at the one that had been tested, I learnt that it is about 30 seconds to clear an individual.
“This I believe is a record time anywhere in the world.
“And having looked at the solutions and the hardware, it is unarguably one of the best.”
Tunji-Ojo said with what he saw on ground, he had no doubt that when completed, Nigerians would no longer be at the mercy of NIS officers or anybody when they arrived in Nigeria.
He said: “This is a fact.
“Because as you can see, it is a matter of putting in your passport and it scans it, opens the gate, reads your facials, your biometrics, it will capture you and then you leave.
“You do not need to have an encounter with any Immigration officer.
“But again, unless you are a person of interest, I must always put that because this whole purpose is not just for you to be able to pass at record time.
“No.
“It’s not just for that.
“It is to also secure the country by doing so.”
The Minister explained further that for the country to also add another layer to its national security architecture, it should be able to have about two or three licence verifications.
This, he said, would enable the appropriate authority to easily flag anybody or a passenger who happened to be a person of interest or on the watch list.
Tunji-Ojo added that by the time the project comes on stream, it would go a long way to support NIS officers to enable them to effectively do their jobs.
He added: “By the time the project comes to fruition, it will be a new story and will be another milestone in the annals of the country and NIS.
“The project is not just in Abuja.
“We are looking at delivering about 16 in Lagos, eight in the D-WING and eight in the E-WING, as well as one in the private wing in Lagos to make it 17 in total.
“About five in Kano, four in Enugu and four in Port Harcourt.”
Tunji-Ojo explained that what he believed was that people must not come through Abuja for them to enjoy the services.
More so, the Minister inspected another ongoing project: Advanced Passengers Information System, at the NIS headquarters.
APIS is a device that enables NIS officials to access anybody’s biodata at least two hours before the person or passenger enters into the country.
Tunji-Ojo expressed delight with the level of work done so far, adding that the project was more than 70 percent ready as the equipment was on ground, including the servers.
He said: “My Joy is that the contractor has given me his words that in the next three weeks, it will be 100 percent ready.
“So, it means that the E-NIS project, the border control management, which is the automation of the border control system, is on course and Nigerians are about to have new experiences.
“And above all, NIS is ready to contribute its quota to the national security architecture.
“As I always say, NIS is an integral part of national security.
“And as a security organisation, the efficiency of the service goes a long way to determine how secure the country will be.
“That is why it has decided to adopt technology and automated its operations.”
