NIS begins Customer service week

Segun Oladipupo

Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) begins Customer Service week ceremony as the Acting Comptroller General of Immigration, Isah Jere Idris declared a week-long ceremony open at the headquarters in Abuja on Monday.

The Service Public Relations Officer, Assistant Comptroller of Immigration (ACI) Amos Okpu availed our correspondent with the information in a statement.

The event, according to Idris, would hold across all commands and formations of the Service including its offices abroad.

The gesture, he said, would deepen healthy interface with all service seekers in its various service Windows.

The CGI added that it was designed to afford service takers the opportunity to interrogate its service delivery profile with a view to generating useful feedback for necessary improvements in the quality of service delivery.

His words, “Putting it succinctly, the acting Comptroller General remarked that. ‘NIS recognizes the increasing public demand for quality service delivery from all service rendering agencies in contemporary times.

“Our unique roles as both security and service rendering organization require that we emplace structures and processes that should ensure prompt, improved and indeed seamless service delivery across our service windows”

He noted further that the Service is not unaware that some service seekers are probably not having the desired experiences on some of its service points and therefore wishes that such experiences could be clearly shared with it during and after the Customer Service Week to enable it effect some changes.

“He said the theme of this year’s customer service week, “Excellent Service Delivery: A Panacea for Corruption” was borne out of our recognition that we cannot sit in the comfort of our Offices and validate our performances, he said

“We believe that an event such as this is apt for members of the public who interact with us to truly share their experiences.

” We are ready to receive constructive criticisms that would help us to improve on the quality of service delivery.

“We strongly believe that ours is a work-in-progress project and so every effort necessary for enhanced service delivery shall be employed for the needed improvement, noting that we are not yet where we desired but we are no longer at the point we used to be. Some good changes have occurred” he reiterated.

He assured that stiff sanctions await any member of the workforce who attempts to undermine the zero tolerance for corruption of his administration and called on members of the public to take advantage of all the Service contact details, including social media handles, to report any unprofessional conducts by any Personnel.

In her remark at the event, the National Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of SERVICOM (Presidency), Mrs. Nnenna Akajiemeli enjoined Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government (MDAs) to begin to treat customers with dignity across their service delivery windows, noting that no agency that fails to emplace quality service delivery mechanism is ready for the realities of contemporary world environment.

She stressed that service takers are getting highly sophisticated and knowledgeable about their rights and so no agency can go away with any poor services or conducts any longer.

She advised NIS’ management to deepen reforms in Passport processes and procedures for improved experiences for applicants, particularly those in the diaspora, stressing that a deliberate engagement with the Foreign Affairs Ministry is important.

She also called for the extension of the ongoing reforms to other areas including Border Management.

Earlier, the chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) Prof. Bolaji Owansonye represented by the Director of Reforms, Mrs. Uloma Olekwama, described the Week-long Customer Service event as very apt and a demonstration of strong commitment by the management of NIS to subject its service delivery structure to public scrutiny.

He called for sustained efforts at the ongoing reforms, maintaining that the desire of every service seeker is to be served timely and rightly.

The Customer Service Week which shall hold between 14th-18th February, 2022 across all Commands and Formations and will require all personnel at the various service points such as airports, land and sea borders, Passport Offices and other locations to be readily available to attend to all manner of persons and issues in the most professional ways during and after the event.

In the words of the NIS SERVICOM Nodal Officer and Reform Champion, DCI CPP Obua, “the basic essence of the event is to re-inevent a professionalized migration management agency that treats people with utmost decency and transparency”.

He noted that the Service has continued to make some remarkable investments in customer interface including the introduction of the Virtual Assistant to help out service seekers who may have any challenge while applying for any facility on our website.

Some major highlights of the week-long event would include lectures, public sensitization visits to critical service points and the unveiling of the NIS Corporate Service Charter.