The federal government, through the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), has begun installing e-gates aka Automated border control systems (ABC) at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
Gatekeepers News reports that the initiative aims to enhance national security, facilitate passenger processing, and improve the ease of business operations.
During an inspection of the newly installed e-gate at the airport’s arrival session on Friday, the Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo revealed that the installation at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja is already complete.
He said “Lagos has three wings. This is Terminal 2. We have the D and E wings. 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 to 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 the ease of passengers. So, we have to be taking them 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 per cent good to go, then we will move to other airports like Kano, Enugu and Port Harcourt which each have four gates. These will be faster. Lagos airport alone has 21 gates. Lagos is where you have the major traffic.”
The minister emphasized the importance of e-gates in boosting national security, highlighting their connection to global databases.
He said, “When you travel to New York and you get to JFK, as a foreigner, you are on the queue. An 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 on 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.”
He also noted that the project is a public-private partnership and part of a comprehensive border control management solution.
