Immigration moves to digitise border management, boost security

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The Nigeria Immigration Service says the service is accelerating the use of digital identity systems, automated border controls and intelligence-led surveillance as part of efforts to tighten Nigeria’s borders without undermining legitimate movement and cross-border trade.

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The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Kemi Nandap, disclosed this on Monday in Lagos at the 2026 conference of the African Borderlands Research Network.

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The conference, themed “The Connected Borderlands: Socio-Cultural Integration and the Centrality of Policy, Research, and Security,” brought together researchers, policymakers, security practitioners and development partners to examine the changing security and socio-economic dynamics of Africa’s border regions.

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Nandap said Nigeria’s approach to border management was being reshaped by changing migration patterns, regional integration, expanding cross-border commerce and increasingly sophisticated security threats.

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She argued that borders could no longer be treated simply as lines separating countries, given the extent to which communities, families, cultures and economies operate across them.

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According to her, the challenge for governments was to secure borders while ensuring that legitimate travellers, traders and communities were not unnecessarily restricted.

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“Borders should no longer be viewed merely as geographical lines separating sovereign states, but as dynamic spaces where families, communities and cultures interact and where legitimate trade and movement take place,” she said.

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Nandap identified human trafficking, migrant smuggling, identity fraud, organised crime, terrorism and cyber-enabled offences among the threats increasingly exploiting cross-border networks.

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“Addressing them requires us to work differently and, importantly, to work together,” she said.

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She said the NIS was consequently combining the professional expertise of its personnel with digital technology, intelligence gathering and inter-agency cooperation to detect and respond to threats more effectively.

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Nigeria, she noted, had been moving towards technology-driven border administration for nearly two decades, becoming the first African country to introduce the electronic passport in 2007.

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The NIS boss said the country had since upgraded its e-Passport system with enhanced biometric and security features, while digitising several stages of passport processing, including applications, payments and identity verification.

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She said the centralisation of passport personalisation had also strengthened the integrity of the production process, while Nigeria’s participation in the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s Public Key Directory had enhanced the international verification of its electronic passports.

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Nandap added that contactless biometric passport services were being deployed to make passport services more accessible to Nigerians outside the country without compromising security requirements.

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At the country’s international airports, she said, automated border control systems, including electronic gates, were also being deployed to speed up passenger processing through biometric verification.

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The service is also investing in surveillance equipment, command and control systems, communications infrastructure and integrated data platforms covering Nigeria’s land, air and maritime borders, she said.

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Nandap, however, cautioned against treating technology as an end in itself.

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“Their fundamental purpose is to enhance the capacity of our officers to make timely and well-informed decisions, identify emerging risks at an earlier stage and improve operational coordination, and facilitate the seamless movement of legitimate travellers while safeguarding national security,” she said.

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She maintained that technology would not eliminate the need for competent immigration personnel, stressing the importance of professional judgement, experience and integrity in border operations.

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Beyond technology and institutional cooperation, Nandap called for stronger partnerships with communities living along Nigeria’s borders, describing them as an important source of local intelligence and strategic partners in border management.

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The Chairman of ABORNE, Prof Paul Nugent, said borderlands had repeatedly become focal points of government security interventions during health emergencies and periods of regional instability.

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He cited the Ebola outbreak, COVID-19 pandemic and regional insurgencies as examples of crises that had resulted in border restrictions and, in some cases, prolonged closures.

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Nugent said ABORNE was seeking to narrow the gap between academic research and policymaking by bringing researchers into closer engagement with border agencies, policymakers and practitioners working in border communities.

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He also urged a shift away from portraying African borderlands primarily as zones of insecurity and disorder, arguing that many had developed into centres of commerce, urban innovation and cultural exchange.

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Prof Anthony Asiwaju, a former Director of the Centre for African Regional Integration and Border Studies, also commended the conference for promoting research and policy discussions around the future of African borderlands.

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