The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) is accelerating the deployment of digital identity systems, automated border controls and intelligence-led surveillance to strengthen Nigeria’s borders while ensuring that legitimate travellers, traders and border communities can move freely.
The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Kemi Nandap, disclosed this on Monday in Lagos at the 2026 conference of the African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE), which brought together researchers, policymakers, security practitioners and development partners to examine the changing security and socio-economic realities of Africa’s border regions.
Nandap said Nigeria’s border management strategy was being reshaped by changing migration patterns, regional integration, expanding cross-border commerce and increasingly sophisticated security threats.
She stressed that borders could no longer be viewed merely as geographical lines separating countries, noting that they are also spaces where families, communities, cultures and economies interact.
According to her, the challenge is to strengthen border security without unnecessarily restricting legitimate travellers, traders and communities.
Nandap identified human trafficking, migrant smuggling, identity fraud, organised crime, terrorism and cyber-enabled offences among the threats increasingly exploiting cross-border networks.
“Addressing them requires us to work differently and, importantly, to work together,” she said, emphasising the importance of intelligence gathering, digital technology and inter-agency cooperation.
The NIS boss said Nigeria had pursued technology-driven border administration for nearly two decades, becoming the first African country to introduce the electronic passport in 2007.
She explained that the e-Passport system had since been upgraded with enhanced biometric and security features, while several stages of passport processing, including applications, payments and identity verification, had been digitised.
Nandap said contactless biometric passport services were also being deployed to make passport services more accessible to Nigerians outside the country without compromising security requirements.
At international airports, she said automated border control systems, including electronic gates, were being deployed to speed up passenger processing through biometric verification.
The NIS is also investing in surveillance equipment, command and control systems, communications infrastructure and integrated data platforms covering Nigeria’s land, air and maritime borders.
However, Nandap cautioned that technology should not be treated as an end in itself, stressing that its purpose is to help immigration officers make timely and informed decisions, identify emerging risks earlier, improve operational coordination and facilitate the seamless movement of legitimate travellers.
She maintained that technology would not eliminate the need for competent immigration personnel, noting that professional judgement, experience and integrity remain central to effective border operations.
Beyond technology, Nandap called for stronger partnerships with communities living along Nigeria’s borders, describing them as valuable sources of local intelligence and strategic partners in border management.
Chairman of ABORNE, Prof. Paul Nugent, said borderlands had repeatedly become focal points of government security interventions during health emergencies and periods of regional instability, citing the Ebola outbreak, COVID-19 pandemic and regional insurgencies.
Nugent said ABORNE was working to bridge the gap between academic research and policymaking by bringing researchers into closer engagement with border agencies, policymakers and practitioners working in border communities.
He also urged a shift away from portraying African borderlands primarily as zones of insecurity and disorder, noting that many had evolved into centres of commerce, urban innovation and cultural exchange.
Prof. Anthony Asiwaju, former Director of the Centre for African Regional Integration and Border Studies, commended the conference for promoting stronger research and policy discussions on the future of African borderlands.
