The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) will commence registration of all foreigners in Nigeria by next year.
Comptroller General of the Service, Muhammad Babandede, who gave the hint yesterday noted that the exercise which would carried out nationwide is aimed at uncovering non-Nigerians who have either over stayed beyond their stipulated period or entered the country through illegal means.
He spoke at the passing out parade of the first conversion course of 639 officials who were converted from Inspector Cadre to Assistant Superintendent Cadre after ten years in service.
According to him, the NIS will work with state governors and other stakeholders to ensure that all foreigners in their respective households are compelled to participate in the registration exercise.
Babandede also said 2019 would be action-packed for the service with a number of activities, including upgrading of Nigerian passport and extension of its validity period to 10 years, changing the service to an IT driven institution and ensuring efficient service devoiding of corruption.
“2019 will be a good year for the lmmigration services. A lot of things are coming in 2019 for the service. ln 2019, we will start registering all non-Nigerians. Anybody who is not a Nigerian citizen must register and this information would be shared to other security services and will be online”, he noted.
He added that even though election is not the responsibility of the NIS, the Service will complement INEC’s efforts towards refraining non-Nigerians from participating in the polls.
On her part, coordinator of the conversion training course, Mrs Elizabeth Inok, said the 639 officers demonstrated high sense of ethical conduct and that they were adequately trained to surmount the emerging global migration challenges.
