Border, Migration: Interior minister calls for unified database among ECOWAS member states
Border, Migration: Interior minister calls for unified database among ECOWAS member states
The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has called for a unified database system among members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to ensure safe border/ migration system.
Tunji-Ojo made the call during a meeting with ministers in charge of Immigration and Border Management within ECOWAS member states on Wednesday in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire monitored by the Voice Media Trust (VMT NEWS).
According to the minister, there is no structure for database data management, hence the need for an integrated platform.
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“What we can do realistically is to be able to create an integrated platform where we can integrate all these solutions and be able to share them.
“If we keep issuing cards, training people on issue of how to identify and detect fraudulent cards, to a large extent we are also wasting and undermining the power of technology.
“The whole idea why some of these things are QR-coded is for them to be easily verified.
“So if we have this database, even for our visa, residency and other things, it will be a source of truth for the processes.
“With an information system, we don’t need to start afresh by getting this data, all we need to do is integrate this data on a sub-regional basis and that will give us a supranational database,” the minister said.
Tunji-Ojo also said that it was imperative for the funding of borders to be prioritised, bearing in mind that allocations had to be in line with each countries border realities.
“I will advise that we shouldn’t be specific to say this percentage is for national border. For some countries, there are other things that are more context than others.
“Border is more economic than security for some of these countries. So what will be given or allocated has to be in line with the realities,” he said.
Speaking on the issue of academics, he said that it was better as West Africans to have a decentralized capacity building.
“I don’t think it’s practicable for everything to be concentrated; it’s easier for us to ensure efficiency, excellence and viability of these institutions,” he said.
The minister further said that there was need to look into the yellow paper card mandatory requirement for travel and exemptions to specific regions
He called for continuous synergy, peer reviews and meetings among ministers of interior and political heads in internal security management.
According to him, if there’s a weakness in one country, it has a way of affecting the other country, hence, we must share opinions and be able to work together.
Voice Media Trust (VMT NEWS) reports that the meeting was necessitated, following series of technical consultations in 2024 and 2025 by ECOWAS and other stakeholders on the need to strengthen regional migration governance.
In 2025, three regional assessments were undertaken on migration data collection/management, border management/migration, environment and climate change.
