Canada donates 56 border monitoring tools to Nigeria

The Canadian government has provided the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), with 56 Migration Information and Data Analysis Systems (MIDAS), in a collaborative effort to boost border security.

Receiving the items at a handover ceremony at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Comptroller General of the NIS, Mohammed Babandede, said the delivery was timely as the agency was intensifying effort to boost passenger clearance and border monitoring.

In a statement issued by the Public Relations Officer of the NIS in Abuja, Sunday James, Babandede said the agency had beefed up security at the various entry and exit points across the nation’s borders.

“So far, the MIDAS has been installed in many locations, including airports and land borders, and that the 63 new ones donated by the Canadian government through the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), will be utilised effectively.

“In 2018, MIDAS was installed at five major international airports and other strategic ports,” he said.

According to the statement, the MIDAS was adopted to improve the national border management information system, a project supported by the European Union (EU), Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway.

Babandede said the NIS would use the equipment to contribute to Nigeria’s security as well to global security “because a safe border in Nigeria would impact on a safer border everywhere in the world.”