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Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has confirmed Nigeria has a centralised data system to promote smooth statistics-related services such as international passport processing.
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He spoke while contributing to a conversation on X (formerly Twitter) concerning the progress made by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Interior, yesterday.
The minister said before his administration came on board, the data of Nigerians were in various independent locations, making it difficult to easily access them when needed, and increasing the cost of passport processing and cost of governance, on the other hand.
He said: “We were able to build one of the biggest data centres in the history of Nigeria, which is the 8.3 petabyte centre. Before then, we had an issue, because we inherited a Nigeria Immigration Service that has no data centre, where the data of Nigerians were obviously being saved in private capacities with various contractors, and that is a gross contravention of the Data Protection Act.
“Nigeria cannot proliferate the issuance of its security document because it is a gross violation of due process and at best, so we decided to find a lasting solution to that, and we started by promising Nigerians a 1.4-petabyte data centre, but we ended up delivering an 8.3-petabyte data centre.
“The visa approval centre is also an achievement for this administration because we also now have a centralised visa approval centre.
“This will stem corruption, ensure national security, and merge the visa regime to ensure uniformity.”Tunji-Ojo added: “Before March 1st, all visa application systems will be online to ensure proper vetting.”
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