E-gates ready for take-off at Lagos Airport – FG

The federal government has concluded plans to deploy electronic gates at three more international airports in Nigeria.

Already, the e-gates have been deployed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport while that of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport has also been completed and is ready for commissioning.

The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this on Friday night while inspecting the User Acceptance Test (UAT) of the E-gate already installed at Terminal 2.

He was joined by the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Kemi Nandap.

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The minister stated that given the number of gates at the MMIA, the e-gates would be 100 per cent completed and ready to be installed in the next few weeks.

He said, “The Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja is already 100 per cent 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 the 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 have four gates each. This will be faster. Lagos airport alone has 21 gates. Lagos is where you have the major traffic.”

He stated that the e-gates would boost passenger experience at the airports and ease facilitation.

He said, “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 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 Comptroller-General of Immigration urged Nigerian passport applicants to go and pick up their passports, disclosing that over 107,000 passports have been produced and applicants have not picked them up.

“Technology anywhere in the world is meant to improve your 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 efficiency and professionalism. The training is going on right now and it is a continuous process. We will continue doing training and capacity building all the time,” she added.