Niger donates data capturing equipment to Immigration

Niger State Governor, Mohammed Bago, has promised to support federal establishments in the state whenever the need arises for the betterment of the citizenry.

Bago pledged this while presenting five sets of passport data-capturing equipment to the state’s command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

The Commissioner for Communication Technology and Digital Economy, Suleiman Isah, who made the presentation on behalf of the state government at the ministry’s headquarters in Minna, noted that the new equipment would go a long way in enhancing the operations of the command, especially during the Hajj exercise.

Isah hinted that the state government had received complaints from the people concerning the rigorous process they went through while processing their passports, noting that the traffic would increase during the Hajj exercise; hence, the need for new equipment to enable the command to perform optimally.

He added: “The governor directed my ministry to work out modalities to support Immigration with state-of-the-art equipment. We did our findings and discovered that their systems were not up to date; therefore, the ministry requested the new equipment for Immigration, and the governor graciously approved the purchase,” Isah said.

According to him, the government expects that with the presentation of the new equipment, any citizen of the state applying for a passport should be able to have a turnaround time of about 24 to 48 hours for capturing.

Equipment donated include fingerprint scanners, DSLR cameras, signature pads and desktop computers.

Receiving the equipment on behalf of the Comptroller General of NIS, Kemi Nandap, the Acting Comptroller, Niger State Command, Emmanuel Eche, appreciated the governor for the gesture, describing the donation as unprecedented.

Eche revealed that Bago had done so much for the command, assuring of continued synergy with the state government at all levels.

He said: “The new equipment will fine-tune our service delivery for Niger people, especially during Hajj exercises, in which we used to have shortcomings. But take it from me; the best will come out from us soonest.”