NIS, ICMPD explore strategies to boost staff capacity

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), in conjunction with the International Centre for Migration Policy and Development (ICMPD), is to hold a four-day technical working committee meeting to examine strategies for improving capacity among NIS personnel.

A statement by Amos Okpu, a Deputy Controller and NIS Public Relations Officer, said the meeting to be held in Lagos would begin on Sept. 26.

He said that the sessions would be targeted at improving career prospects among officers and preparing them to cope with emerging challenges.

Okpu said that the multi-stakeholders meeting shall have participants from both the private and government institutions, including development partners.

“It is the third quarterly meeting of the Committee since its inception sometime in 2021; earlier meetings were held in Kano and Port Harcourt,” he added.

He quoted the Chairman of the Committee, Mr Aminu Muhammad, a Deputy Comptroller-General of NIS, who also heads the Border Management Directorate of the NIS, as saying that the meeting shall deepen conversations on the efforts by NIS to modernise its capacity building and career development activities.

“The ultimate goal is to make career development not only demand-driven but also linked to personnel performance and training activities,” he further quoted Muhammad as saying.

Opku said that ICMPD was currently implementing a Danish government-funded intervention project to institute a training policy structure that promotes professionalism and a robust career development pathway for personnel of NIS.

The project targets three thematic areas – career progression, virtual learning and gender mainstreaming, he explained.

The NIS image manager said that the meeting in Lagos shall afford participants the opportunity to deliberate on the first comprehensive draft of the gender mainstreaming policy integrated into the schedule of duty and training matrix of the career progression framework.

According to him, it will also discuss the draft outline of the career progression framework with a clearly defined structural organogram of the NIS.

“The meeting shall also look at the draft schedule of duty for all cadres of personnel in each Directorate, and a draft of mandatory and optional training courses for all cadres of personnel that are linked to their job description and career profile.

“It will also review the proposed Training Policy Outline for the NIS,” he said.

Among delegates expected at the meeting are senior officials from the Ministry of Interior, senior NIS officers, and the Head of Office, ICMPD West Africa, Dr Mojisola Sodeinde.

(NAN)