Nigeria Immigration Service opens centre to combat illegal migration 

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) on Thursday in Abuja inaugurated a Personnel Training Resource Centre to combat illegal migration.

The service also launched the training curriculum for its personnel to serve as a guide. 

Performing the ceremony in Abuja on Thursday, Comptroller-General NIS, Muhammad Babandede said that the centre was aimed at registering non-citizens, who were staying in the country for more than 90 days.

“It is intended for anybody who is not a citizen of Nigeria, who has entered our territory and stayed for a period exceeding 90 days,” he said. 

Babandede sad the centre was co-funded by donors headed by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). 

Other donors include the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany.

He said that the effort was also in line with immigration’s regulation which made it mandatory for non-Nigerians to register when they come into the country.

“This project will be sustained. The foreigners’ registration will be linked to the Migrant Information and Data Analysis System.

“It is a project which has been invested into by many European countries to make immigration safer,” he said.

He further said that part of the goal of the centre was to raise the core competence and skill level of the entire service to a higher level of professionalism.

“I thank IOM for been able to give donor support in order to develop a training manual and training centre where we can continuously train our officers,” he said.

The comptroller-general said that the project would be rolled out in all the states soon. He, however, said that there was no payment for the registration.

Chief of Mission, IOM, Frantz Celestine said that the organisation has aligned with various financial and development partners in order to boost the capacity of NIS to combat irregular migration.

The chief of missions, represented by Fernando Medina, said the organisation was pleased to fully support NIS in improving the use of information technology.

He said that the foreigner registration pilot site was first of its kind in West Africa.

“This demonstrates the power of partnerships, collaboration and joint prioritisation and implementation in line with the Paris principles of aid effectiveness.”

Also, representative of the Embassy of the Netherlands, Ceciel Groot, who said that the strength of an organisation laid with its people, revealed that it was important to keep investing in human capital development.

“Institutionalising human capital development and training in an organisation with more than 10, 000 staff spread over the whole country and embassies is an enormous task.

“This endeavour here in Nigeria is not left unnoticed.

“Other countries are watching. If successful, Nigeria can be a showcase to the region and therefore engagement of ECOWAS is very important.

“I’m impressed with what has been achieved. My country, the Netherlands is committed to supporting institutional developments and empowerment of key institutions in Nigeria. My country is contributing 1.33 million dollars towards this endeavours,” she said.