The Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, said the federal government would commence the installation of facial recognition technology at major airports in the country which is a solution to improve and incorporate automatic security measures around the airports and easily detect impostors.
Agba expressed his happiness that the series of meetings, which began in January in Tokyo on the project, aimed at recognising faces of persons who pass through international airports has started to yield results which they believe, would further strengthen the security of people and the country as a whole. He says the project was conceived in view of several security concerns among Nigerians and the need to nip the growing concerns in the bud.
The minister further reveals that as part of pre-requisites for the processing of the facial recognition system, he would be leading the ambassador and the team on a site survey visit to Lagos and Abuja Airports for necessary assessments and also pleaded for the understanding and cooperation of all relevant stakeholders that would make the proposal a reality, assuring that facial recognition had proven to be effective globally, in securing airports.
The technology would be deployed to airports through grant agreements between the federal government and the Japanese Government, with a focus on Lagos and Abuja international airports in the pilot phase before the project would be extended to Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano Airport.
