By Deborah Nnamdi
The Federal Government has said all visa applications will be made online by at the latest March 1.
Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this on Monday when he was hosted on ‘X Spaces’ by an influencer, Dr. Segun Awosanya.
Tunji-Ojo said there is also now a centralized visa approval center that has merged the visa regime to ensure uniformity, enhance national security, and reduce corruption.
“The visa approval center is also an achievement for this administration because we also now have a centralized visa approval center.
“This will stem corruption, ensure national security, and merge the visa regime to ensure uniformity. Before March 1, 2025, all visa application systems will be online to ensure proper vetting,” he stated.
The minister reiterated the existence of a harmonized data center at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Technology Innovation Complex (BATTIC) domiciled at the headquarters of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in Sauka, Abuja.
He said, “We were able to build one of the biggest data centers in the history of Nigeria, which is the 8.3-petabyte center. Before then, we had an issue because we inherited a Nigeria Immigration Service that had no data center, where the data of Nigerians was being saved in private capacities with various contractors, and that was 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 so, we decided to find a lasting solution to that, we started by promising Nigerians a 1.4-petabyte data center, but we ended up delivering an 8.3-petabyte data center—one of the largest in the world.”
