The Federal Government has disclosed plans to establish a harmonised centre to strengthen border control, particularly in the prevention of immigration and document fraud.
The Minister of Interior, Hon Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made this known on Tuesday in Abuja when he received the United Kingdom’s Minister of State for Home Affairs, David Hanson, in audience.
He noted that one of the key issues with border control is immigration and document fraud, observing that this issue is on the rise due to the absence of a centralised pool for real-time authentication and verification of documents.
Tunji-Ojo stated: “So today, if people submit 20 documents, you might need to go to 20 issuing agencies to verify 20 documents belonging to one person. So, if you have 1,000 people per day, you might need to look for 100,000 verification and authentication systems. That breeds inefficiency. And for us, we sincerely believe, and I will not shy away from this fact, and I will say this very clearly, that the unfortunate situation is that the bad reputation of a few is being magnified, is being amplified at the expense of the great reputation of the majority of Nigerians. But we are not blaming anybody for that. We are taking responsibility.
“Nigerians have a responsibility, and as such, as a country, we have decided to create a real-time pool where authentication and verification of all documents—be it bank statements, passports, birth certificates, or any other document—can happen at one centre.
“So we are already working on that because we care about our image, and we care about our relationships. We want to give people the opportunity to know what is right at any time they wish to know it. It is not just about integration; it also affects investors.
“If somebody wants to invest in Nigeria, they will want to know who they are dealing with. As a government, we are trying to be more proactive than reactive, and we don’t want to judge our performance in terms of fraud by virtue of recoveries or convictions, but rather by the number of crimes or frauds that we prevented from happening,” he stated.
The Minister reaffirmed the commitment of the current administration to ensuring that performance is based on preventive measures rather than reactive ones.
The UK Minister of State for Home Affairs, David Hanson, on his part, stated that Nigeria and the UK must improve performance on criminal justice outcomes.
He noted that there is a great common agenda that both countries can share, expressing his eagerness to see how the two Ministers can work closely together.
Hanson added that his visit was timely and an opportunity to review the new Joint Centre that Nigeria is working on. He assured Tunji-Ojo that he would meet with his colleagues in other government departments.
“We obviously have key issues coming up in terms of our new government’s approach to drawing up new policies on migration issues, looking at how our new visa system is working, and exploring how we can extend opportunities to develop skills, trade, and business with Nigeria. I know that my colleagues from the High Commission are very keen to support continual engagement with the Nigerian government and with yourselves on a range of issues as a whole.
“I think it is really important, and I know that you visited recently and met with the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper. There is a willingness and hope that we can further engage, and that you want to organise regional conferences along the lines that we have been trying to do in the United Kingdom to raise some of these criminal justice issues within your sphere of influence here in Nigeria and beyond.”
The UK Minister was accompanied by officials from the UK Home Office, the National Crime Agency, and the UK High Commission in Nigeria.
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