As part of efforts to ensure effective border security and its management, the federal government is to install 31 electronic boarding gates at the country’s five major entry airports.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who stated this in Abuja on Monday added that the deployment of the E-Gates equipment will boost the nation’s national security and help detect criminal activities across the border.
He affirmed that government is working assiduously to ensure that the necessary technology driven software and other devices to enhance passenger facility are deployed at all the nation’s entry and exit borders.
He spoke while inspecting the E-Gate facilities at the Terminal Two of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos.
The Minister assured that the government policy on Ease of Doing Business and the scaling up of facilities at the air borders are underway as Nigeria inches towards the required global standards at airports.
“The Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja is already 100 percent complete 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 to 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,” he stated.
