THE Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has generated N438.78bn as revenue from 2017 to date, findings have shown.
This came as the total sum of Internally Generated Revenue by the agency almost doubled from N38.53bn in 2017 to N74.69 (budgeted IGR) in 2022.
In 2017, 2018 and 2019, the NIS raked in N38.5bn, N39bn and N61bn, respectively.
However, the service’s IGR suffered a 19 per cent drop to N49.9bn in 2020 largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the revenue rose by about 44 per cent amounting to N71.7bn. Its proposed revenue for the 2022 fiscal year stands at the N74.6bn.
The sum of $230.63m (N103.01bn) offshore revenue was generated by the agency between 2017 and 2022.
A breakdown showed that $31.6m, $36.91m and $41.8m were generated in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.
In 2020, 2021 and 2022, the service generated $20.07m, N40.33m and $39.90m respectively.
Meanwhile, the budgetary allocation for the immigration service rose by at least 2023 per cent in the fiscal years from 2018 to 2023.
At of the time of filing this report, the spokesperson for the NIS, was not reachable as calls made to his mobile line went unanswered.
However, in its seven-year scorecard for the Buhari regime, the Presidency had argued the FG was working to reposition the NIS to satisfy global standards and adhere to global best practices.
Citing border security efforts, the report issued by the President’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, said “The Nigerian Immigration Service is deploying a Migration Information and Data Analysis System at five international airports. MIDAS is a global real-time border management system developed by International Organization for Migration and is linked to INTERPOL & other watch-lists.
“The implementation of MIDAS at the International Airport in Abuja was described by the IOM as “the largest deployment of MIDAS at any airport globally, to date.”
The Punch