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Government of Nigeria reposted
Mohammed Idris, FNIPR
@HMMohammedIdris
Takeaways from the Presentation by the Honorable Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo
@BTOofficial
, at the 5th edition of the 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing Series #FMINOBriefing , hosted by the Honorable Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, fnipr, in Abuja, 20 March 2025
1.The Federal Government has built a highly-sophisticated Technology Innovation Complex (including a Command and Control Centre, a 8.3-petabyte Data Centre, and a 4MW solar power plant) for the Nigeria Immigration Service, in order to strengthen the nation’s border security. The state-of-the-art Complex is the first of its kind in Africa, and integrated into all major security databases globally, facilitating the arrest of persons on the INTERPOL Red List at various points of entry into Nigeria.
2.The Federal Executive Council has approved the centralization of the issuance of Nigerian passports, in line with international best practices, to improve document security and integrity.
3.The Ministry has installed electronic gates (e-gates) at the international airports in Lagos and Abuja, integrated with the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS); thereby reducing human interface in immigration verification processes
http://4.At the outset of the Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo-led leadership, over 200,000 passport issuance backlog were cleared in less than 3 weeks. Furthermore, Nigerians are now able to get their international passport within two weeks after applying. The Ministry has also introduced a contactless passport application system, enabling passport renewals to be done virtually/digitally in minutes, from the comfort of home. The contactless system, in addition to making passport renewal more convenient for Nigerians, has also saved the Nigerian Immigration Service an annual N800 million expenditure arising from operational logistics.
5.For the first time ever, Nigeria has now been enrolled into International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) Public Key Directory (PKD) and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems, thereby boosting the acceptability of Nigerian passports at international borders and improving Nigerians’ travel experiences.
6.Plans are underway to introduce technologically advanced e-Visas to replace the existing Visa on Arrival system, improving service delivery without compromising security.
7.Currently, 60 percent of Nigeria’s 4,047km terrestrial border are under the coverage of a robust border surveillance system. Work is ongoing to ensure complete surveillance of the entire border.
8.Nigerian Correctional Centre, in collaboration with Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has successful captured biometrics of all inmates in the centres. This was instrumental in the quick recapture of inmates who escaped from the prison during the Maiduguri flood disaster in 2024.
9.President Bola Tinubu has approved a 50 percent upward review of prison inmates’ feeding allowance from N750 to N1,125.
10.Following the approval of President Bola Tinubu, about 9 correctional centres across the country are undergoing massive rehabilitation, after many years of disrepair. 29 others have also been earmarked for relocation away from city centres and residential neighbourhoods.
11.Over 3,000 inmates were trained on various vocational skills in the second half of 2024, as part of measures to reintegrate them into the society upon freedom and reduce the rate of recidivism. Also, the Interior Ministry, working with the support of private sector philanthropy, secured the release of over 4,000 inmates who had challenges paying mandatory fines, thereby decongesting our correctional centres by 5 percent and saving federal government a minimum of N1 billion a year.
12.The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in 2024 secured over 345 convictions, 187 other cases are in court. Federal Government has also procured over 100 operational vehicles and 12 gunboats to boost their effectiveness.
13.Over 10,000 personnel of NSCDC have been trained and deployed to secure farm settlements as agro-rangers; over 2,500 others deployed to secure mining sites as mining marshalls.
14.All inherited promotion backlogs for all members of Nigeria’s paramilitary services have been cleared by the President Bola Tinubu administration, with the implementation of approved promotions for 52,000 officers. The promotion exercise for 2025 has kicked off. Also, payment of a special ‘peculiar allowance’ to the paramilitary services has also been approved by Mr. President.
Prepared by the Information & Insights Unit (IIU)
Office of the Honorable Minister of Information and National Orientation (HMINO)
Abuja, Nigeria
20 March 2025
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