NIGERIA | Pro-Business Plan Expands Visa-on-Arrival and Permissible Business Activities
As part of Nigeria’s recently announced 60-day action plan to improve its international business climate, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has announced the expansion of its visa-on-arrival scheme to accommodate business travelers whose home countries have no Nigerian consular post. Traditionally, business visas are applied for through the Nigerian overseas missions; but in cases where the applicant resides in a country with no Nigerian consular post, the process of applying through a Nigerian consulate in a neighboring country can prove to be expensive and inconvenient.
Effective immediately, the NIS has made visas-on-arrival available to “frequently travelled business persons of international repute” and “executives of multi-national companies” from countries with no Nigerian consular post. Those foreign nationals may apply for visas-on-arrival, valid for a single 14-day stay, at the port of entry. While the visas are issued upon arrival, applicants must arrive already holding a “visa on arrival approval letter” obtained for them by an in-country sponsor. According to the NIS website, requests for the required approval letters will be processed within two working days.
Also, to further accommodate business travelers to Nigeria, the NIS has expanded the definition of business activity permitted under the traditional 90-day business visas issued by the Nigerian overseas missions, as well as the new visas-on-arrival. The list of permissible business activities – in addition to the traditional attendance at meetings, conferences, and seminars – now includes negotiating contracts, sales activities, job interviews, training and research, purchasing and distributing Nigerian goods, attending trade fairs, and emergency or relief work.
Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria is currently in its fourth consecutive quarter of recession, posting a 2.2 percent GDP contraction in the final quarter of 2016. While the slow-down is primarily due to the softening oil market, which is expected to rebound somewhat in 2017, economists have warned that significant government policy reform is sorely needed to restore consumer and business confidence and steer the economy back to growth. Hopefully, the current 60-day action plan and these corporate mobility improvements are just the start of more needed pro-business reforms.
Tshwane – South Africa and Nigeria have resolved to establish an early warning system in response to xenophobic attacks and to strengthen relations between the two nations.
International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and her Nigerian counterpart Geoffrey Onyeama held a bilateral meeting on Monday. This follows a wave of xenophobic violence in SA in February.
The meeting was attended by several officials from both countries, including Nigeria’s interior minister and South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba.
Ten houses were torched in Rosettenville by angry residents who claimed the homes were being used by Nigerians for drug dealing and prostitution. Several Pretoria homes were raided by community members for similar reasons.
“For some time now, there have been these incidents of attacks and Nigerians have been victims,” said Onyeama.
He added that his government knew that violence aimed at Nigerian nationals in SA was not state sponsored.
‘Dynamic’ South Africa
“We know that the South African government has always condemned this, that the South African people have condemned this. It was the action of a small criminal minority,” he continued.
“We also recognise that not all the Nigerians in SA engage in lawful activity, but the vast majority are,” said Onyeama.
Nigeria, the second biggest oil producer in Africa, is likely to enjoy increased earnings from its exports by the end of 2017, when global prices are expected rise to $60 per barrel, an increase that will boost the nation’s struggling economy.
Global oil prices fell from a peak of $115 per barrel in June 2014 to below $35 in February last year before recovering to $ 50 per barrel in December.
“I am hoping that we are heading towards $60 per barrel and I don’t see higher than that,” Gulf News quoted Emmanuel Kachikwu, the country’s Oil minister, as saying.
Kachikwu added that the West African nation production rose from a daily production of 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in early 2016 to the current 1.6 million and expects the output to hit 2.1 million by end of January.
The current production is the lowest since June 2007.
The nation’s output fell close to a 22-year low in May, following attacks by militants in the oil-rich region of Niger Delta, who damaged gas and oil pipelines and forced Chevron to shut its facility in Okan.
The government is negotiating with the militants.
Kachikwu said increased security by government forces in the region and the engagements with the militants who are demanding greater share of the oil-revenue will stabilize production this year, Gulf News reported.
In November, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) exempted the nation from a production cut of about 2.1 bpd due to the damage on its oil and gas infrastructure, Vanguard News reported.
Nigeria’s economy, which earns about 80 percent of its foreign revenue from crude oil exports, is facing its worst crisis in 25 years.