Visa on Arrival for Africans

We commend the Federal Government for its approval of the issuance of visas to all Africans when they arrive Nigeria’s entry port. In a diplomatic note signed on October 14 and addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, embassies of member states of the African Union, and all diplomatic and consular missions, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the prompt issuance of visas on arrival to all Africans. What this means is that an African with a valid passport with legitimate reasons to be in Nigeria would automatically be issued a Nigerian visa at the point of entry.
Visa on Arrival for Africans seems to be a most thoughtful expansion of the “Visa on Arrival” policy, which was introduced in March 2017 as part of the initiative of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC). Then, the Visa on Arrival was restricted to the highly exclusive club of “frequently travelled business persons of international repute,” top executives of multinational corporations, members of government delegations, holders of United Nations laissez-passer, holders of African Union laissez-passer, holders of Economic Community of West African States laissez-passer, and holders of other international travel documents. The concern of the PEBEC was the frequent complaints from all over the world that our missions abroad were insensitive to the needs of investors and businessmen who are made to go through numerous obstacles before they are given visas to enable them travel to Nigeria.
The extension of the visa system to all Africans seems to be a dream come true for many Nigerian business interests in the tourism and hospitality industries to whom the former difficult visa requirements were an impediment to good business and a hurdle to the free movement of Africans to Africa’s most populous nation.
Even on the foreign policy front, Nigeria’s Afro-centric policy demanded that we lead the way in fostering interaction among African countries. To that extent, many Nigerians had expected this policy decades ago.
The policy holds good prospects for tourism and tourism-related services, for transportation, including aviation and sea transportation, and greater expansion of trade within the continent. Our manufacturing has been a victim of our woeful electricity supply, which has deprived us of our potential to be the manufacturer of most consumer products for a considerable part of the continent, especially those in West and Central Africa. We have no doubt that other African countries are bound to adopt the visa on arrival policy. When that happens, Africa would have accomplished the first major step in continental interaction, creating ease of movement among African nations, even if the trans-African highways and railways seem like distant dreams.
Perhaps, the most exciting part of the Visa on Arrival policy is that it is accessible on the Internet and available in all parts of the world. The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has dedicated an e-mail address for visa applicants, their representatives and companies.
Indeed, the NIS boasts that it has automated the visa processing services to ensure that all genuine requests for the Visa on Arrival facility can be processed and issued within 48 hours or in two working days. All NIS requires is a functional e-mail address to which a visa approval letter can be sent. The online visa on arrival system is also a product of an ongoing visa reform, the NIS says, to bring Nigeria at par with standard practices worldwide with the elimination of unnecessary bureaucratic procedures, which make entry into Nigeria difficult.
While we congratulate the government and the NIS on these initiatives, we must mention that the liberalisation of visas almost always comes with the risk that undesirable elements might slip through. This is where the NIS must exert itself to ensure that only visitors with genuine missions are allowed into the country. The continent is swarming with terrorists and weapons, presenting exceptional security challenges that deserve the utmost caution so as not to turn our aspirations into tragedy.