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President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday launched the revised Nigeria Visa Policy (NVP) at the State House in Abuja. The new policy broadens Nigeria's visa categories from six to 79, according to Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS). It will enable citizens of the 54 African countries travelling to Nigeria to get their visas at the point of entry.

The new visa policy has been unveiled ahead of the commencement of the operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in July 2020. The policy also advances the African Union (AU) Free Movement of Persons Protocol, which seeks to ease visa restrictions on the continent.

“The objective of the reforms that have birthed NVP 2020 is to strengthen Nigeria’s position as a key economy in Africa by attracting more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country,” said NIS, whose statement was sent to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). In 2018, the Nigerian government had implemented a visa-on-arrival policy for selected categories of businesspeople visiting the country as part of its National Action Plan on Ease of Doing Business (EoDB).

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, while speaking at the launch of the NVP 2020, stated that the new visa regime was 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. He said the policy will enable Nigeria to apply the principle of visa reciprocity in its bilateral and multilateral relations.

“The NVP 2020 introduces special visas for Nigerians in diaspora who either by birth, marriage or nationalisation have assumed dual citizenship,” said Aregbesola. “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.”

The Comptroller General of NIS, Muhammad Babandede, said the new NVP presents a good opportunity for Nigeria to be a major destination for investment in Africa.

“The new visa policy is expected to take Nigeria some steps up in the Africa Visa Openness Report published annually by the African Development Bank (AfDB) which would be a further boost on the global Ease of doing business league table,” Babandede added.