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Visa face-off resolved, UAE to lift ban on Nigerians to Dubai soon, says Minister
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo said the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was ready to lift the travel barriers the country placed on Nigerians, which bars visitors from Nigeria from going to Dubai.
Keyamo made the disclosure Sunday night at the welcome dinner for delegates attending the International Air Transport Association (IATA) 80th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit taking place in Dubai.
The Minister was accompanied to the expansive hall with the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum amid applause from the over 2000 delegates attending the summit.
Fielding questions from journalists, the Minister said issues relating to visa denial by the UAE had been resolved, adding that what remained was to fine-tune processes for lifting the visa ban.
He further stated that after that, the announcement would be made in a couple of weeks by the UAE authorities..
His words, “The issue of visa has been resolved just the announcement remaining. They want to dot the Is and cross the Ts. The announcement will be in a couple of weeks.
He noted that his visit to Dubai was necessitated by the need to foster very healthy relationships across the world, stressing that that is what the present government is all about laid already by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu with the UAE.
“The UAE is considered as a very important partner in Nigeria. Nigerians have a lot of stakes here in the UAE with a lot of investments. What we are doing is to make sure that we make it easy for millions of Nigerians who have put a lot of pressure on us to ensure that we open up this route again and secondly to make the visa application easier. I am sure you can see the way I was received here. That is to tell you how they value Nigeria.”
“I was on the same ride with the ruler of Dubai, the Minister and the head of Emirates Group and all the top shots of Emirates. There was no other person given that privilege here; that is to tell you how much they value us and they want Nigeria to see it in that light. They have opened up again to us. They have started to trust us again and I want to say thank you to them. I will take it from here on.”
Recall that President Tinubu had in August 2023 waded into the stand-off between the UAE and Nigeria over the issuance of visas and the face-off with Emirates Airlines directing the matters be resolved.
The President personally intervened on the two issues so that people-to-person socio-economic relations between the two countries could resume.
While Emirates Airlines plans to resume flights to Nigeria on October 1, 2024, after two years of exit from the country, there was no breakthrough from the UAE on when the visa ban would be lifted.
But Keyamo’s assurance that the UAE would make a statement on that a few weeks from now may have rekindled hope of increased trade between both countries and increased flight connectivity.
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