The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has integrated over 15 million migration records into its system to strengthen border security and enhance migration management, the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has said.
The Minister disclosed this at the closing ceremony of a specialised training programme on border control and immigration management for 87 officers of the NIS Integrated Operations Centre in Abuja.
The Minister said the move is intended to improve identity verification, curb fraud and give security agencies a clearer view of travelers entering the country.
He said its Border Control and Immigration Management System (BCIM), now holds the records following integration with the service’s earlier Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS).
Tunji-Ojo said the consolidation is part of a broader effort to eliminate disconnected databases across government institutions and create what he called a “single point of truth” for immigration and security operations.
He disclosed that the Ministry has also introduced the Centralised Interior Management and Administration System, (CIMAS) designed to link data across agencies including immigration, correctional services and the Federal Fire Service.
The Minister also said the integration is meant to improve monitoring of foreign nationals and reduce security risks created by inconsistent records.
“You cannot deal with 200 million people in an analogue environment,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He added that the government has developed a 10-year technology roadmap for the Interior Ministry and built a data center with capacity exceeding eight petabytes, supported by an off-grid solar-power facility.
He added that vendors would be required to transfer technical knowledge to Nigerian personnel, an attempt to prevent the country from becoming dependent on outside contractors to operate systems central to national security.
Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service Kemi Nandap cautioned that the system’s value would depend on how officers use it.
Automated risk indicators, she said, must trigger scrutiny rather than substitute for evidence, professional judgment or travelers’ legal rights.
“An alert is not a verdict,” Nandap said.
She identified accuracy, integrity, judgment, readiness and accountability as core standards for system users, and warned that unauthorized access, credential sharing or use of the platform to facilitate illegal movement would draw investigation and sanctions.
The Comptroller-General said the program’s effectiveness will be judged not by the size of its database but by whether migration records become more accurate, border checks more consistent, alerts escalated promptly and travelers treated lawfully.
“The initiative”, she said, “represents our attempt to shift border management from fragmented, largely manual processes toward coordinated, data-driven operations”, adding, “a transition whose success will hinge on sustained investment, interagency cooperation and disciplined use of the new tools”.
