Excessive airport checks withering foreign investors’ interest

Excessive checks on in-bound passengers by several government agencies at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), the busiest of Nigeria’s five international airports, is said to be withering foreign investors’ interest in the country, investigations by BusinessDay have shown.

The procedure, which includes routine passport checks by Immigration officials, repeated by Department of State Services’ (DSS) officials to ascertain a passenger’s name is not on the list of wanted fraudsters/terrorists, is further aggravated by random checks by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and regular luggage checks by Custom officials.

This rather cumbersome process has been further worsened by the new screening for the Ebola virus disease (EVD) by port health officials, delaying passengers for a minimum of 20 minutes (could be more during rush periods) before exiting the arrival hall has been highlighted to be dwindling foreign investors’ interest in Africa’s biggest economy.

“There are couples of repeated checks by different government agencies at MMIA, Lagos, on incoming passengers and this can be a major turn-off for a first time investor,” a Lagos-based businessman who preferred to be unnamed recently told BusinessDay.

“The passport is an e-passport that is supposed to be swiped on the system so the passenger’s information can be displayed, but currently you have a scenario where one official checks the passport and the same check is repeated by another official,” the worried investor explained.

This unpopular trend, he maintained, would certainly dampen any investors’ interest visiting the country for the first time as it is not in line with procedures in other parts of the world.

Further investigations by BusinessDay revealed that a committee which was set up to decongest the multiple security checks at most entry points (land and sea) of the country had submitted its report to the secretary to the Federal Government but events at the airport clearly shows that findings of the report are far from being implemented.

David Parradang, comptroller general, Nigeria Immigration Service, in response to questions from our reporter attributed the current multiple checks at the airport to the lack of modern infrastructure at the airport, adding that once the new terminal is delivered next year, in-bound passengers will be checked by a central screening system.

Parradang is also hopeful that once the report to rationalise checks at the airport is implemented by the next budget cycle the cumbersome process will be significantly streamlined.

According to him, Nigeria remains committed to attracting investors into its economy and growing the tourism sector.

Industry watchers have projected that by the year 2032, Africa’s aviation sector would be contributing $168.7 billion to the continent’s GDP, owing to an increase in socio-economic activities.