The Nigeria Immigration Service says the service is accelerating the use of digital identity systems, automated border controls and intelligence-led surveillance as part of efforts to tighten Nigeria’s borders without undermining legitimate movement and cross-border trade.
The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Kemi Nandap, disclosed this on Monday in Lagos at the 2026 conference of the African Borderlands Research Network.
The conference, themed “The Connected Borderlands: Socio-Cultural Integration and the Centrality of Policy, Research, and Security,” brought together researchers, policymakers, security practitioners and development partners to examine the changing security and socio-economic dynamics of Africa’s border regions.
Nandap said Nigeria’s approach to border management was being reshaped by changing migration patterns, regional integration, expanding cross-border commerce and increasingly sophisticated security threats.
She argued that borders could no longer be treated simply as lines separating countries, given the extent to which communities, families, cultures and economies operate across them.
