FG Launches Harmonized Departure, Arrival Cards At Kaduna Airport
The cards were unveiled in the presence of the Minister of State Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration, Muhammed Babandede , DG NCAA, Captain Usman Muhtar, FAAN MD, Engr Saleh Dunoma, FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, Managing Director /CEO of Medview Airlines, Alhaji Muneer Bankole amongst other stakeholders in the aviation industry.
According to a statement by the Service Public Relations Officer, Sunday James (ACI) issued on behalf of the Comptroller General Of Immigration Service on Thursday, the unveiling, is in line with international best practices and in pursuit of the Federal Government Policy of ease of doing business and to keep the records of movement of international passengers, adding that “the process mandates travelers for security reasons to fill the Departure/Arrival Cards, which contains their profile, their addresses and other personal details in one harmonized form” .
According to James “Pursuant to this, non-Nigerians are expected to fill both the Departure/Arrival cards while Nigerians are expected to fill only Departure cards. These cards are scanned and stored in data bank that is to be shared with relevant stake holders and in that regards, a unique identity and travel records of passengers are secured”.
He said the federal Government of Nigeria has chosen the Kaduna International Airport to formally introduce this unique security document to the travelling public.
“The introduction of this cards replaces the multiplicity of cards hitherto existed and has taken care of the interest of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Customs Service, Port Health Services, NDLEA and others. This would go a long way to reduce the cumbersomeness and multiplicity of forms for travelers and enhance the ease of doing business in the long run”, James added.
Speaking shortly after the unveiling of the departure and arrival cards, Alhaji Bankole who commended the Federal Government said “We are here to see things for ourselves for the fact that we are the ones that operate this business and the customers need the feedback from us as we want the customers to equally give us feedback for the service we render on the aircraft.
” For your information we have been in Kaduna. We have been in partnership with the state government and it has been a wonderful state. As you know we airlift pilgrims from this state and we have our normal operations here since about two years ago. We want to commend the Federal Government on the noble efforts and decision taken to come to this state. I will tell you I grew up here. My carrier days as a cadet, this used to be the nucleus of Nigerian politics and we operated at that time almost 16 flights daily”, Bankole said.
The Medview CEO pointed out that Kaduna is a wonderful state with a lot of viable opportunities.
“I operate Hajj here. I think gradually from what we have seen now is the beginning of the good things to come.
In the last six eight months, this place was not like this. So we have to commend them for bringing up these efforts. Our commendation also goes to the Minister of Aviation. We have to support each other to make sure things work for this country and we now use the opportunity to the the foreign airlines, they have no choice other than to come here”, Bankole said.
