Please note that the Nigerian Consulate in South Africa has run out of visa labels/stickers. Therefore, visas can only be issued earliest from next week Monday or Tuesday (23/24 October 2017).
If you need assistance with Nigerian or South African visas, we may be able to help. Feel free to contact us via info@relocationafrica.com or on 2721 763 4240, or visit our website here for more information.
The African Union’s political affairs office had tweeted on Friday that Nigeria announced the plan at a retreat for permanent representatives to the continental body.
Nigeria’s Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, told The Associated Press on Sunday: “It is not true that we have any such plans.”
Africans need visas to travel to 55% of the continent, according to AU figures, and officials say that hurts trade.
Ghana, Rwanda, Mauritius and the Seychelles already issue visas on arrival to all African passport holders.
Zimbabweans have become part of South Africa’s fabric. There are anywhere between one and three million Zimbabweans living and working in the country.
More than 200 000 Zimbabweans are here on a special visa that will expire at the end of the year. Although government has outlined paths for them to remain in the country legally, the process is clouded by confusion and bureaucratic hurdles.
It should come as little surprise that, seven years after South Africa introduced the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (ZDP), which offered amnesty to Zimbabweans who had been living in the country with fraudulent documents, those who hold these permits have become part of South Africa’s economic and social makeup.
A total of 242 731 Zimbabweans were granted a permit under the banner of the ZDP in 2010. The department of home affairs waived fees and the need for certain supporting documents, including passports.
Shortly before the ZDP was due to expire in December 2014, the Zimbabwean Special Dispensation permit (ZSP) replaced it, under the same condition that it would not be renewable.
Instead, ZSP holders were advised that, following the permit’s expiration on December 31 2017, those who qualified for a standard visa in South Africa would have to apply in Zimbabwe, where the processing time is about two months, without accounting for delays. Those who did not qualify for a standard visa would have to return to Zimbabwe.
While China snakes its influence in technology across the African continent, one of its smaller neighbors has also been making inroads in countries far from home. South Korea, one of the Far East’s technological powerhouses, claims to have a stronghold in the central African country of Rwanda.
The unlikely story begins with KT Corporation (KT), a South Korean telecoms giant, which started helping to form the backbone to Rwanda’s communications infrastructure a decade ago. The state-owned company currently builds and operates ICT services in Rwanda’s public and private markets, and provides a 4G service in partnership with the Rwandan government.
Korea re-opened its embassy in the Rwandan capital of Kigali in 2011 after closure due to conflict. “Surprisingly there is a great deal of common ground between the two countries,” Lee Dong Ku, deputy chief of mission at the Korean embassy in Rwanda, told CNBC.
Rwandans in turn look towards South Korea’s “quick recovery from conflict,” and “fast-paced socio-economic development,” Claudette Irere, director general for ICT at Rwanda’s Ministry of Youth and ICT, told CNBC.
According to a profile of Rwanda’s ICT sector released in December 2015, the field recorded an average growth that year of 16 percent, steaming ahead of the rest of the economy which grew at 6.9 percent. In 2015, the ICT sector contributed 3 percent to the country’s gross domestic product.