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FG to relax rules, to issue visa to foreigners in 48 hours
***To launch tourism development
***OBJ tasks NANTA on tourism
The Federal Government has concluded plans to ease the difficulty of obtaining Nigerian visa for travellers willing to come to the country, adding that applicants would now get their visa in 48 hours.
The disclosure was made by the Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed who was represented by the Acting Director-General of Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Dr. Paul Adalikwu at the 41st session of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA).
This is coming as the Minister disclosed plan to launch the Tourism Development Fund (TDF).
The process of obtaining a Nigerian visa has been likened to a camel passing through the eye of a needle. To visit, foreigners need to successfully navigate a maze of paperwork both before and after they get into the country.
But the Minister said that is set to change, adding that as part of 60-day plan to improve Nigeria’s business climate, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has reviewed the requirements for Nigerian visas to make them more customer friendly.
To make entry smoother, the NIS would harmonise airport immigration forms to reduce the stress of paperwork for visitors.
Visas on arrival will also be made available to high net-worth investors coming for urgent business and to visitors from countries without Nigerian consulates.
Former Director-General of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Olusegun Demuren corroborated Mohammed, adding that there is the need to ease visa issuance, lamenting that people are finding it very difficult to secure Nigerian visa.
His words, “The visa charges are high. A lot of Nigerian have children studying abroad and they want to come home. Visa on arrival is what government should look into. We need to remove all barriers that will make travel easier.”
Demuren said with tourism, there is nothing like recession and charged the travel agents to look inward and focus attention on the many attractions of the country that need to be explored by the people.
Meanwhile, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has tasked Nigeria travel operators on developing and promoting domestic tourism, maintaining that for a country as blessed as Nigeria, the nationals and government have no reason to look elsewhere for their economic growth even as the Minister for Information and Culture,
Obasanjo made this declaration in Lagos as special guest of honour at NANTA’s AGM with theme, ‘Tourism in a recessed economy,’ the former president said tourism is a catalyst for growing the economy and could take the country out of its present woes.
‘‘What we must do is to begin to encourage Nigerians to travel within the country because we will generate heavy revenue from domestic tourism.’’
He commended NANTA for its achievements over the years, describing it as the only resounding and vocal travel body in the country.
He charged them to pay more attention to domestic tourism, lamenting that a lot of Nigerians don’t travel within Nigeria.
He shared his dream of how he wants to transform Abeokuta into one of the best and most sought after destinations in Nigeria.
Also sharing his experience of taking advantage of opportunities in the aviation and tourism sector, the Managing Director of Medview Airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, said recession offers the best opportunity for the country and people to thrive, urging them to be more creative and innovative on their approach, as there are a lot of business opportunities in the aviation and tourism markets to explore.
Earlier in his welcome address, NANTA president, Bernard, charged his members to remain steadfast and resolute in their business, stressing that NANTA was set to occupy the country’s tourism space.
He assured them of government commitment to the sector and that the government was willing to partner with them in moving the sector forward even as he highlighted areas of commitment and policy guidelines the government is pushing such as the Presidential Council on Tourism (PCT) and Tourism Development Fund (TDF), which he said would soon be launched.
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