From Suleiman Amagbor, in Lagos
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji -Ojo has said that the ongoing installation of electronic boarding gates at Nigeria international airports will strengthen the Federal Government efforts to boost national security, detect criminal activities as well as ensure effective border management procedures.
The Minister affirmed that government is working hard to ensure that the necessary technology driven software and other devices to enhance passenger facility, Ease of Doing Business to scale up facilities at the air borders are underway as Nigeria inches towards the required global standards at airports.
Tunji-Ojo spoke when he inspected facilities at the Terminal Two of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos where he said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is committed that all efforts are put in place to ensure the entire borders of the country are secured through the deployment of appropriate modern technology.
The Minister affirmed that the electronic boarding gates have become imperative because its role in ensuring smooth passenger facility at airports, in capturing data to monitor the movement of persons into the country as the government scales up its national security architecture.
Besides Abuja Airport, where the technology has been fully deployed, the Minister the facility in Lagos was inching towards completion as an acceptance users test is being carried.
When the facility at the Lagos at the Lagos Airport is completed, the Minister said it will extend to Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu airports.
He said “The Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja is already 100 percent complete but this is just one terminal of about eight gates. This is delivered and ready for commissioning. Lagos has three wings. This is Terminal 2.
We have the D and E wing. Now you see that the gates have been installed. What they are doing now is called the User Acceptance Test (UAT) which is the last stage and by Monday morning, this wing will have been completed 100 percent. As it is, it is already installed. So, we just need to align the sensor. From here, we will move the D Wing which has four gates because we can’t block the three entrances at the same time.
We can’t work simultaneously because of ease of passengers. So, we have to be taking one after the other. The assurance we have is that by next weekend, the D Wing will have been fully completed. We will then be left with the E wing which has eight gates. This may take us another maximum of two weeks. In the next three weeks from now, Lagos will be 100 percent good to go, and then we will move to other airports like Kano, Enugu and Port Harcourt which each has four gates. This will be faster. Lagos airport alone has 21 gates. Lagos is where you have the major traffic.”
The Minister said “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu became president just last year and he started work immediately on this. This is not late for the administration. The electronic fares are important because of the enhancement of national security. This is connected to the entire data base all over the world. We are making life easier for Nigeria and at the same time securing the country. The passengers get more comfortable and it’s more convenient but at the same time the nation is secured.
“Secondly, ease of doing business. It also helps with perception of the government. When you travel to New York and you get to JFK, as a foreigner, you are on the queue. The American carries his passport and goes in easily. That gives him lots of confidence that he is in his country. This is called sweet experience and this president is bent of giving Nigerians the sweet experience. It is about changing the narrative and telling us that things we see in other places can work in Nigeria.
“This is not government funded; it is a public-private partnership.. it is part of our border control management solution which is being deployed.
“Mr. President will not rest until every inch of our border space is protected. This is the Air border. Yesterday we did a demo of even our land and sea borders and we are already deploying solutions for that.”
The Minister also spoke on efforts to ensure smooth facilitation of passports issuance for home delivery to applicants in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano.
The same template he said will be spied for applicants in the United Kingdom and United States.
He said:” We believe under renewed hope administration that Nigerians deserve what is best and what can be compared all over the world. So, we have built the data centre, sorted the passport delivery solution and done the final presentation in terms of technology deliverables and the tracking solution which will all be embedded in the application we have, so we don’t create multiple lines of failure.”
“We have done all these and by June we should be able to start. We will not start from everywhere because if you overload the system, you can cause system damage. So we would start home delivery for Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja. For the Diasporas, the U.S and the UK. So we would first test it and see that it works. it is disgraceful that NIS is 61 years old and NIS is a custodian of biometric data of Nigeria and we believe that NIS should be in charge of the data of Nigeria. It is not acceptable that this data is domiciled in a third party and that is why we have been able to do this.
” The final presentation of the e-visa was done today which we have seen and which will reduce the visa processing time from 72 hours to 48 hours and make it easier. The passport automation process is almost complete.”
