The Federal Government has said all visa applications will go online before March 1.

Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this on Monday when he was hosted on ‘X Spaces’ by an influencer, Dr Segun Awosanya.

According to him, there is also now a centralised visa approval centre that has merged the visa regime to ensure uniformity, enhance national security, and reduce 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 reiterated the existence of a harmonised data centre at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Technology Innovation Complex (BATTIC) domiciled at the headquarters of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in Sauka, Abuja.

He said, “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.

“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.”