The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has said Nigeria’s new Visa Policy 2020 just introduced by the Federal Government has the primary objective of attracting specialised skills, knowledge and innovation to its economy from overseas.
Buhari formally presented the policy to the public at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday.
The new visa regime has 79 categories, up from the previous six.
Buhari said, “Earlier in the course of this administration, we introduced the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (2017-2020) with one of the objectives being to minimise bottlenecks which impede innovation and market-based solutions for building an all-inclusive economy.
“The Nigeria Visa Policy 2020 is intended to attract innovation, specialised skills and knowledge from abroad to complement locally available ones.
“I therefore commend the document to the international community, foreign and local business entities. We are open for business,” the President was quoted in a statement by his media aide, Mr Femi Adesina.
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, told the session that the country’s security would not be compromised by the visa policy, though it addressed the needs of persons visiting Nigeria.
The minster noted, “The new visa policy will be helpful to the Diaspora Nigerians by birth who can now use other passports to visit the country because some countries do not allow dual citizenship.”
Aregbesola also gave reasons why the country went for the 79 visa categorisation.
Speaking with State House Correspondents, he said, “The reason is simple; we want to be very detailed in the classification of people who we have to bring into our country so as to limit the chances of anyone of them escaping our watch. It is to enhance security, that is the number one consideration.
“Secondly, it is to expand our economy. Let me give you an example; I won’t mention the name. A university wrote me as the minister to request a specific number of visa allocation so as to enhance the number of students coming to that institution.
“For every foreign student you have, it’s a boost to our economy because they are not going to pay naira, they will pay in foreign currency.
“So, we now have a specified visa for education. For religious tourism, we know and I won’t mention name, that there are people who come into this country purely for spiritual matters. We can’t deny it because it exists.”
Aregbesola also said the visa on arrival implementation would involve only the four functional international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Kano, not just any entry port into the country.
On his part, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Muhammad Babandede, stated that the new visa policy and processing were designed to curb corruption.
He said, “On the complaints about the number of foreigners in Nigeria, I want you to consider the number of Nigerians outside also. Nigeria must export its labour. In the next decade, we are going to be the most populous nation in the world.
“If you know the number of Nigerians in other ECOWAS countries and the business they control, you will not develop hatred for migrants.
“As long as they live legally and do their jobs correctly, we should consider that there are Nigerians elsewhere. It is important for us to know this.”

By John Ameh