The federal government will complete the installation of 31 electronic boarding gates at the country’s five major entry airports soon as part of measure to ensure effective border security and its management, the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has said.
He stated that the deployment of the E-Gates equipment will boost the nation’s national security and help detect criminal activities just as 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 where he stated that government policy on Ease of Doing Business and the scale up of facilities at the air borders are underway as Nigeria inches towards the required global standards at airports.
He said: “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, vwe 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.”
