Interior Minister, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo,
By Sade Williams
Interior Minister, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, on Friday said all 21 electronic gates (E-gates) at Lagos airports would be 100 percent ready for use in three weeks.
Speaking during inspection of the level of work at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport new terminal in Lagos, the Minister said what is left to be installed is just the Universal Access transceiver and then align the sensors
While expressing satisfaction with the level of work done, he said: The Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja is already 100 percent done but this is just one terminal of about eight gates. This is delivered and ready for commissioning. Lagos has three wings. This is Terminal 2. We have the D and E wing. Now you see that the gates have been installed. What they are doing now is called the User Acceptance Test (UAT) which is the last stage and by Monday morning, this wing will have been completed 100 percent.
“As it is, it is already installed. So, we just need to align the sensor. From here, we will move the the D Wing which has four gates because we can’t block the three entrances at the same time. We can’t work simultaneously because of ease of passengers. So,we have to be taking one after the other. The assurance we have is that by next weekend, the D Wing will have been fully completed. We will then be left with the E wing which has eight gates. This may take us another maximum of two weeks. In the next three weeks from now, Lagos will be 100 percent good to go, then we will move to other airports like Kano, Enugu and Port Harcourt which each has four gates. This will be faster. Lagos airport alone has 21 gates. Lagos is where you have the major traffic.”, he said.
Recall that Tunji-Ojo had disclosed that the 33 electronic passport gates (e-Gates) would be installed at MMIA and three other international airports in a bid to secure the nation’s borders .
On Friday, he noted that apart from enhancement of national security, features like electronic fares are also important they are connected to all the data base all over the world.
“Secondly, ease of doing business. It also helps with perception of the government. When you travel to New York and you get to JFK, as a foreigner, you are on the queue. The American carries his passport and goes in easily. That gives him lots of confidence that he is in his country. This is called sweet experience and this president is bent of giving Nigerians the sweet experience. It is about changing the narrative and telling us that things we see in other places cab work in Nigeria.
“The passengers get more comfortable and it’s more convenient but at the same time the nation is secured.”, he added.
Meanwhile, Comptroller General of Immigration, Kemi Nadap, called on Nigerians to pick up their passports as over 107,000 were ready for pick-up.
“If you have applied for passports, please go and pick your passports. We have over 107,000 passports that have been produced and applicants have not picked them up.”, she said.
Speaking on the importance of the e-Gates, Nandap said: ‘Technology anywhere in the world is meant to improve your services and processes. So this will go a long way not only in border security but also in passenger clearance and productivity of our officers and their efficiencies and professionalism.’
