The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mrs Kemi Nandap, on Wednesday said even the most sophisticated border management systems cannot, on their own, address the factors that drive irregular migration.
She urged traditional rulers, sister agencies, the media and the public to play their parts.
Nandap spoke on Wednesday at the opening of a stakeholders’ sensitisation and engagement seminar at the Service headquarters in Abuja.
The seminar was themed “Bridging the Information Gap: Promoting Informed, Safe and Regular Migration”.
In the address delivered on her behalf by the Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of the Visa and Residency Directorate, Franca Nwanneka, Nandap said accurate information was as important as border control in keeping Nigerians away from trafficking and smuggling networks.
“Preventing these risks requires more than border control. It begins with equipping prospective migrants with accurate, timely and reliable information to make informed decisions and pursue safe, lawful migration pathways,” she argued.
Nandap said the Service was strengthening its capacity through institutional reforms, modern border technologies, intelligence gathering and better service delivery.
She cited the recent deployment of a border control and immigration management system as evidence of its drive for a “modern, responsive and intelligence-led” service.
“Nevertheless, we recognise that even the most sophisticated border management systems cannot on their own address the underlying factors that encourage irregular migration,” she said, adding that people migrated for education, employment, safety and better opportunities, and that these aspirations remained legitimate.
She, however, warned that decisions based on misinformation, false promises or limited awareness of lawful routes could expose people to “serious risks and devastating consequences.”
“Every day people choose to migrate in pursuit of education, employment, safety, and better opportunities. While these aspirations are legitimate, decisions based on misinformation, false promises, or limited awareness of safe and lawful migration pathways can expose individuals to serious risks and devastating consequences.
“Human trafficking, migrant smuggling, travel fraud, and irregular migration highlight the risk of inadequate information and intelligence sharing among operational stakeholders,” she said.
According to Nandap, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, travel fraud and irregular migration also reflected inadequate information and intelligence sharing among operational stakeholders.
The CG said sensitising the public, engaging communities and cooperating across institutions must remain central to the Service’s approach.
“Migration sensitisation is a shared responsibility that cannot be left to the Nigeria Immigration Service alone,” she noted.
She called on government agencies, security institutions, development partners, traditional and community leaders, civil society organisations, educational institutions, transport operators and the media to “move beyond seminar dialogue” and take coordinated, practical action against misinformation.
She said accurate information must reach every community, especially those most vulnerable to exploitation.
“I therefore call on government agencies, security institutions, development partners, traditional and community leaders, civil society organisations, educational institutions, transport operators, and the media to move beyond seminar dialogue and take coordinated, practical action to combat misinformation, raise public awareness, and promote safe, informed, and lawful migration.
“Together, we must ensure that accurate migration information reaches every community, particularly those most vulnerable to exploitation and irregular migration,” said Nandap.
For her part, Senior Programme Associate at the International Organisation for Migration, Nnenna Onuoha, who represented the organisation’s Chief of Mission in Nigeria, Sharon Dimanche, said the partnership between the IOM and the Service had grown stronger and produced “tangible results”.
The seminar drew security and law enforcement agencies, regional and international organisations, border management institutions, civil society groups, academics and the press.
Nandap and the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, recently unveiled the integration of more than 15 million migration records onto one platform.
The Service’s Border Management Information System was linked to the Migration Information and Data Analysis System, and AI-assisted tools were to flag suspicious patterns.
The CG said that the border system profiled travellers using airline passenger data before arrival, and that more than 30 control posts in the north registered migrants arriving by land.
In March, Tunji-Ojo ordered a nationwide crackdown on people living in the country without valid documents and announced an AI-driven system to track travellers who had entered over the past decade.
In its Trafficking in Persons report for 2026, published October 11, the US State Department kept Nigeria on Tier 2 of the Report.
The report recorded 1,341 trafficking investigations and 2,004 identified victims, and said 428 Nigerian victims exploited abroad were repatriated.
It also said no official complicit in trafficking was prosecuted, after the 2025 edition noted the prosecution of one Immigration Service official.