The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, yesterday inspected newly installed electronic gates (e-gates) at the new international terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMIA), Lagos and said that government has built its data centre and in June would embark on home delivery of passports
The e-gates allow automated entry to passengers at security checkpoints and identify individuals using either iris (eye) scanning, fingerprint scanning or facial scanning and also reduces the check-in time of passengers.
Speaking to journalists after the inspection, Tunji-Ojo expressed satisfaction with the on-going installation and said that when completed it would be as efficient as the one already completed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja.
“The Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja is already 100 percent completed 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 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 (tomorrow), 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 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, 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.
He acknowledged that the facility was late in coming and blamed past governments for that, emphasizing that under the administration of President Bola Tinubu things are changing very fast because under one year he was able to provide those critical amenities that were delayed for several years.
He identified the importance of the e-gate, which include improving security, easy passenger facilitation and others.
“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 all the data base all over the world. We are making life easier for Nigerians and at the same time securing the country. The passengers get more comfortable and it is more convenient but at the same time the nation is secured.
“Secondly, it enhances ease of doing business. It also helps with perception of the government. When you travel to New York and you get to JFK (Airport), 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 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,” the Minister said.
He also explained that the project is not wholly government funded, but a public-private partnership (PPP), adding that the project is part of the nation’s border control management solution which is being deployed.
On why passport delivery is still being delayed despite promises and assurances he made earlier; the Minister explained that government has completed the solution but realized that the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) data was not domiciled with the agency or under government custody but with a third party and it strove to build a data centre because it is not good that such important information is in the hands of a private organization.
“We have completed the whole solution but when we came onboard, we realized that the NIS, the data center was not really there. We were leveraging on a private company data centre and we appreciate them for that assistance. We think that it is better to create a permanent solution to problems rather than quick fixes. We could have done it in February but we had to build our data centre from scratch to be able to keep the integrity of our data and national security intact. This is more important. It is about national security and I can assure you that we have completed the data centre which is one of the biggest in Nigeria. It is comparable with anyone you can find anywhere in the world. The command and control centre which we have built; that even IATA (the International Air Transport Association) came to Nigeria and say this is comparable to even the best in the world.
“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 a system damage. So we would start home delivery for Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja. For the diaspora, the US 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 not 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,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He also disclosed that the final presentation of the e-visa was done yesterday, which would reduce the visa processing time from 72 hours to 48 hours and make it easier.
“The passport automation process is almost completed. 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,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Comptroller-General of NIS, Mrs. Kemi Nandap complained that about 107, 000 passports were still in NIS offices uncalled and urged Nigerians who applied for the passports to come and collect them.
“If you have applied for passports, please go and pick your passports. We have over 107,000 passports that have been produced and applicants have not picked them up.
She said that NIS has embraced technology and technology anywhere in the world is meant to improve services and processes.
“So this will go a long way not only in border security but also in passenger clearance and productivity of our officers and their efficiencies and professionalism. The training is going on right now and it is a continuous process. We will continue doing trainings and capacity building all the time,” she said.
