FG To Transition All Visa Applications To Online System By March 1

The Federal Government has announced that all visa applications will be transitioned to an online platform by March 1 at the latest.

The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, shared this update on Monday during an appearance on ‘X Spaces’, hosted by influencer Dr. Segun Awosanya.

Tunji-Ojo explained that the government has also established a centralized visa approval centre, aimed at streamlining the visa process, ensuring uniformity, enhancing national security, and combating corruption.

“The visa approval centre is also an achievement for this administration because we also now have a centralised visa approval centre.

“This will stem corruption, ensure national security, and merge the visa regime to ensure uniformity. Before March 1st, all visa application systems will be online to ensure proper vetting,” he stated.

The Minister also highlighted the establishment of a harmonized data centre located at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Technology Innovation Complex (BATTIC) at the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) headquarters in Sauka, Abuja.

He further explained, “We were able to build one of the biggest data centres in the history of Nigeria, which is the 8.3-petabyte centre. Before then, we had an issue because we inherited a Nigeria Immigration Service that had no data centre, where the data of Nigerians was obviously being saved in private capacities with various contractors, and that was a gross contravention of the Data Protection Act.”

Tunji-Ojo emphasized that safeguarding Nigeria’s security documents is crucial and that the government has taken steps to address the issue, surpassing initial expectations by delivering a state-of-the-art data centre well beyond its planned capacity.

“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, and we started by promising Nigerians a 1.4-petabyte data centre, but we ended up delivering an 8.3-petabyte data centre—one of the largest in the world,” the Minister added.