The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has said that it has remitted over N11.68 billion and 22,972 dollars in eight months into the federation account.
The Comptroller General (CG), NIS, Muhammad Babandede, said this at the Comptroller General’s annual workshop on Thursday in Benin.
Babandede said that NIS was not only a key security agency of government but a service provider and a revenue-generating agency.
“In 2018, we remitted the sum of N6,945,585,360 and $36,909,411 to FGN as its shares of the revenue we generated through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects.
“This year, from January 1st to August 31st, we lodged the sum of N11,682,009,761 and $22,972.38 into the coffers.
“Every immigration officer, serving and retired, strongly believes that a review of some of the PPPs will double or even triple revenue at a time we are running a deficit budget.
“I must not be quoted out of context. Also read: FG close to securing World Bank’s $3bn power sector loan.
“I am a strong believer of PPP because it leverages resources and enhances efficiency, but not some of the PPPs we operate that exploit our resources and add little value to our work,” he said.
The CG said that he was aware and confident that the Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, would make a difference by renegotiating some of the PPPs.
He said that the annual conference had become a strategic event that afforded the service the opportunity to reflect on its activities and also chart a new path and evaluate strategies, policies and programmes.
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“The annual conference has continued to support the service achieve far-reaching successes, enhance our operations and boost the confidence of the general public and international reunion as members of the NIS family”, he said.
This year’s Comptroller General of Immigration annual conference is tagged ‘Migration Management in a Developing Economy: the Role of NIS’.
The conference was attended by the Governor of Edo, Godwin Obaseki, the Minister of Interior, retired Comptrollers General, Deputy Comptrollers General and Assistant Comptrollers General, among others.
The Comptroller General also said that no fewer than 27,046 migrants have been registered in the e-migrant registration database since its inception in July.
He disclosed that of the figure, 17,875 were irregular migrants representing 66 per cent of the total number of migrants registered, adding that 9,170 representing 34 per cent were regular migrants.
He explained that the objective of the migrants’ e-registration was to afford the Nigerian Government the opportunity to know precisely the total number of migrants’ residents in the country as well as their status.
Babandede also said that the migrants data would also assist the government in sociopolitical and National Demographic growth plans.
He further disclosed that the NIS had also reviewed the Nigerian Immigration Service manual of 1963 and published the support from Iinternational Office for Migration (IOM) and funding from the Netherland, Switzerland and GIZ Germany.
The CG also said that it was during the annual conference in 2017, in Ogun State, that the strategic action plans for the passport reforms were initiated.
He noted that President Mohammadu Buhari had on Jan. 15, launched the new e-passport booklet, which have feature like polycarbonate bio-data page technology.
“This enhances security features in line with International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) requirements and guidelines for electronic machine readable travel document.
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