The Nigeria Immigration Service has opened the second phase of a capacity-building programme designed to embed artificial intelligence and blockchain technology into the country’s migration and border management systems, signalling a deliberate push to modernise an agency long associated with paper-based processes.
The second phase, launched in Abuja, will train 220 officers across two batches, building on what officials described as a successful first phase. The Service’s Public Relations Officer, Akinsola Akinlabi, said in a statement on Thursday that the expanded programme forms part of a broader digital transformation agenda aimed at building a technologically skilled workforce within the agency.
The Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of the ICT and Cybersecurity Directorate, Augusta Obianime, used her address to credit the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Kemi Nandap, for backing the initiative. Obianime said the first phase had proved successful enough to prompt the creation of an Inter-Directorate AI and Blockchain Committee, a body set up to deepen collaboration across departments and push the adoption of emerging technologies throughout the Service. She urged the officers now entering training to translate what they learn into sharper operational efficiency and better service delivery in their respective units.
Declaring the training open on Nandap’s behalf, the Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of the Visa and Residency Directorate, Franca Nwanneka, framed the programme as part of a wider commitment to continuous learning and professional excellence within the Service. She said artificial intelligence carries real potential to sharpen operational efficiency and enable intelligence-led migration management, but cautioned that its impact ultimately hinges on the competence and professionalism of the officers deploying it. Emerging technologies, she added, will keep playing a central role in strengthening how the institution performs and in tackling the migration and border challenges of the moment.
Nwanneka went further, describing the initiative as evidence of the Service’s intent to build a workforce capable of using new technology to strengthen border security and improve service delivery in line with international standards. The Comptroller-General, for her part, commended the ICT and Cybersecurity Directorate, the facilitators and the organising committee for driving the digital agenda forward through structured capacity-building efforts.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the training curriculum spans core AI concepts and applications, blockchain fundamentals, AI ethics and data protection, and the integration of AI and blockchain into the Service’s digital operations. The sessions are structured around four priority areas, migration management, border governance, institutional efficiency and national security, giving officers hands-on exposure to tools they will be expected to apply in day-to-day immigration administration.
The push comes as immigration and border agencies across Africa face growing pressure to modernise, both to keep pace with rising cross-border movement and to close the technological gap with more digitally advanced counterparts elsewhere in the world.
