Buhari Unveils 79 Categories In New Visa Policy

President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, unveiled a new visa on arrival policy with 79 visa classifications.
This is even as five international airports with sufficient technology and devices that will make it impossible for persons with threats to pass through have been approved as the only ports of entry where visa on arrival can be obtained.
The four functional airports, for now, are Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa; and Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.
Buhari said the Nigeria Visa Policy (NVP) 2020 is intended to attract investments, innovation, specialised skills and knowledge from abroad to complement local capacity.
The document is a revised version.
The revised policy was a follow up to Buhari’s pronouncements in November, 2019, that a new policy of visas on arrival would be granted to all African travellers starting from January, 2020.
He added that the new policy was to also enhance business opportunities and achieve African integration through the visas on arrival for holders of passports of African Union countries.
There are 79 visa classifications in the revised policy, one of which is the visa on arrival.
The new policy favours Africans with a valid passport who wish to come into the country for a short visit, businesses and tourism, as they are granted 90 days legal stay.
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, explained that this would enhance visa policy by Nigeria, coming on the back of signing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), a treaty seeking to establish a continent-wide marketplace with increased trade and freer movement among its major economic powers.
Aregbesola stated that the visa programme was cardinal to the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria.
He said: “The new visa regime is expected to boost economic activities in the areas of tourism, aviation, entertainment, commerce and other areas where Nigeria has comparative advantage over other African countries. It also presents Nigeria with the opportunity to apply the principle of reciprocity with her visa policy in the nation’s bilateral and multilateral relations.
“The NVP 2020 introduces special visas for Nigerians in Diaspora who either by birth, marriage or nationalisation has assumed dual citizenship. Such category of Nigerians will now be able to make use of the passports of their adopted countries to visit Nigeria without the need for short-stay visa.”
Speaking to State House correspondents on why the classes of visas moved from six to 79, the minister said, “Why 79 classes of visa from six? 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 any one of them escaping our watch. It is to enhance security that is the number one consideration.