By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has adopted Nigeria’s Revised 2025 National Migration Policy, marking a significant step by the Bola Tinubu administration towards building a more coordinated, responsive and people-centred migration governance system.
The policy, approved at the FEC meeting on Wednesday, 19 August, 2026, updates the National Migration Policy first adopted in 2015 and provides a broader framework for addressing emerging migration realities while maximising the contribution of migration to Nigeria’s development.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard M. Doro, described the approval as a major milestone that would translate Nigeria’s international migration commitments into coordinated action at home.
In a statement issued yesterday by his Senior Technical Adviser on Information Systems and Data Analysis, Dr Abimbola Fasanu, Doro said the revised policy would strengthen the protection of migrants, expand opportunities for safe and regular migration, support the return and reintegration of Nigerians, improve migration data and harness the potential of migration and the diaspora for national development.
The Minister said the policy was particularly significant coming after Nigeria’s participation at the 2026 International Migration Review Forum (IMRF), held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in May.
Doro, who led the Nigerian delegation to the forum and served as Co-Chair of Roundtable 3, said Nigeria had used the global platform to demonstrate its progress in implementing the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).
“Our participation at the International Migration Review Forum demonstrated Nigeria’s commitments to the world. The adoption of the Revised National Migration Policy brings those commitments home and provides the national framework for translating them into coordinated and measurable action,” he said.
The minister stressed that migration governance must ultimately be measured by its impact on Nigerians, whether at home or abroad.
“Migration should not become a journey into vulnerability. Our responsibility is to build systems that enable Nigerians to migrate safely and regularly, protect those who move, support those who return, and harness migration as a force for national development,” Doro said.
The revised policy emerged from an extensive whole-of-government and whole-of-society consultation involving Ministries, Departments and Agencies, state governments, civil society organisations, academia, international development partners and other stakeholders within Nigeria’s migration ecosystem.
The review was coordinated by the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), with technical support from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The revised policy and its accompanying Integrated Implementation Plan were validated by stakeholders during the Technical Working Group on Migration and Development meeting in Abuja on April 29, 2025.
At its core, the framework seeks to strengthen institutional coordination, respond to emerging migration trends and align Nigeria’s national priorities with regional and international migration frameworks, particularly the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
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Doro commended the NCFRMI, government institutions, IOM, development partners, civil society organisations and other stakeholders whose technical contributions and consultations contributed to the policy’s eventual adoption.
According to him, the significance of the revised policy goes beyond improving institutional coordination.
Its implementation is expected to enhance the protection of Nigerian migrants, create safer and more regular migration pathways, improve assistance for Nigerians returning home and strengthen the collection and use of migration and diaspora data.
The framework will also promote stronger coordination among federal, state and local governments while providing clearer mechanisms for maximising the economic and developmental contributions of migration and the Nigerian diaspora.
“The movement of people is a reality of our interconnected world. Our task as Government is not merely to manage movement, but to ensure that migration is safer, better coordinated and capable of contributing positively to the lives of our citizens and the development of our country,” Doro said.
The Federal Commissioner of NCFRMI, Dr Tijani Aliyu Ahmed, also welcomed the FEC decision, describing it as the culmination of years of technical work, consultations and collaboration across Nigeria’s migration governance architecture.
Ahmed said the approval would provide fresh impetus for coordinated implementation at the federal, state and local levels, while strengthening Nigeria’s capacity to protect migrants and vulnerable populations and maximise the developmental benefits of migration.
With the policy now adopted, attention is expected to shift from formulation to implementation, monitoring and localisation.
For the Tinubu administration, the policy provides another avenue for connecting international commitments with domestic development priorities, particularly in protecting vulnerable Nigerians, strengthening institutions and creating opportunities for citizens who seek to migrate.
Doro said the FEC decision reflected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to institutional reform and ensuring that Nigeria’s international obligations translated into practical benefits for citizens.
“This approval is not the end of the process. It is the beginning of the most important phase: implementation,” he said.
“Our responsibility now is to ensure that the policy moves beyond paper and becomes a living framework that protects Nigerians, strengthens coordination, creates safer migration pathways and enables our country to harness migration as an instrument of development.”
He added: “Under President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, we will continue working with our agencies, State and Local Governments, development partners, civil society and the international community to build a migration governance system that works for Nigeria and for Nigerians wherever they may be.
