Nigeria’s airport e-gates: from installation to operation

The installation stage

On 19 February 2024, the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation published an account of Tunji-Ojo’s inspection at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. Four of ten planned e-verification gates had been installed at that point. The release placed the gates within a wider e-immigration programme.

The inspection also covered the command-and-control centre and a border data centre at the Nigeria Immigration Service headquarters. The minister described biometric checks and watchlist screening as intended functions. The release’s projected processing time and completion dates were targets reported at the time, rather than independent measurements of performance.

The operational update

A government release dated 10 April 2025 described e-gates at Lagos and Abuja as operational. It attributed their installation to cooperation between the Interior and Aviation ministries, with support from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.

That briefing also discussed the Advanced Passenger Information System, an automated visa system, and digital arrival and departure cards. These are related parts of border administration, but they are separate services. The existence of an airport gate does not, by itself, establish the availability of every digital immigration service.

How to read the record

The useful comparison is between the dated stages: equipment being installed in February 2024, followed by a report of operation in April 2025. It helps avoid treating a proposal, a construction milestone and an operating service as the same achievement.

Neither release provides an independently audited, nationwide series of passenger waiting times. This article therefore records the announcements and their dates without turning them into a claim about every airport or every traveller’s experience. The photographs illustrate the wider inspection programme; they do not establish the date of each milestone.

For travellers today

This is a historical explainer, not a live airport-service notice. For current entry requirements, eligibility and passport services, use the Nigeria Immigration Service and the relevant airport’s official information. Our contact directory links to those public channels, while the Interior record brings together the wider documented programme.