Proper border management vital to Nigeria’s growth, says Interior Ministry official

Scoring Nigeria high in the management of its borders, the permanent secretary said Nigeria has adopted ‘’home-grown solutions’’, appropriate legal backing as well as adequate budgeting bulwark in policing its borders without cash constraint.

She said the reforms being implemented by the ministry and its agencies such as the e-visa, e-passport, e-gate, e-papers were yielding results. For example, she said, they have only drastically reduced the time spent to get approvals, unlike the paper forms in the past, which took longer.

Fully, she announced the ministry has adopted paperless and contactless services, urging Nigerians to avail themselves of the quality services the government is offering them. She said Nigerians were not expected to see any one in the ministry or the agencies to get any service from them.

‘’Everything about us now is 100 per cent paperless,’’ she added.

To sustain the system, Mrs Ajani recommended more investment in digital infrastructure, inter-agency collaboration, among others.

She submitted that with more reforms implemented, Nigeria would remain a model for Africa

Nandap, who was represented by ACG Mohammed Adamu, lauded the government for its motivation for the agency personnel, saying over 18,000 workers had been promoted since the minister took over. With this welfare package, among others, she said the workers’ performance had been enhanced. She said with the application of technology in border policing, physical patrol had been eradicated, adding: ‘’This is a good development. The reforms are good.’’

The Director-General, Directorate of State Services, Adeola Ajayi, represented by Dr. Stephen Olufemi Ojelade, an Assistant Director, however, advised against overreliance on technology, saying that it could fail.

He sought the establishment of a united system that includes NIS, the Police, and Customs to boost security; more investment in digital training as well as data science, strengthening of cyber security architecture, adoption of intelligence sharing and regular joint exercise by the DSS, NIS and others as well as pre-recruitment aimed at flushing out the bad eggs in the system.

National President, NACC, Alhaji Sheriff Balogun, said the 66-year-old bilateral chamber of commerce was established not merely to host events but to shape the conditions under which legitimate commerce, investment, and economic partnership could thrive.

‘’Over the decades, we have facilitated billions of dollars of Nigerian United States trade and investment, which has produced a positive investment for Nigeria and the U.S. as well.

‘’Various position papers produced at such breakfast meetings have found their way into legislation and serve as an authoritative private sector voice at every stage of our nation’s economic revolution. Our breakfast meeting is not a social convention.’’

The awardees expressed appreciation for the honour. Specifically, Mrs Austen-Peters said the award was more important to her because as a film director, she worked behind the scenes to hone the skills of youths and is rarely seen while their products take the shine.