The Federal Government of Nigeria has revealed plans to cancel its visa-on-arrival policy.
This development was announced by the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, during the closing ceremony of a capacity-building training for personnel of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS.
The capacity building training is one of the measures adopted by the NIS to document everyone visiting the country.
Recall that former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration introduced the visa-on-arrival policy in 2020 as a short-stay visa issued at the point of entry.
Tunji-Ojo said the Federal Government would introduce landing and exit cards, which makes prospective visitors pre-fill before coming into the country in place of the visa-on-arrival policy
The minister emphasized the need to harmonise the immigration data centre and have integrated solutions for decisions that borders on migration into Nigeria.
He said such harmonization would make it impossible for approvals without the clearance of Interpol, the criminal records system, and every background-checking agency in real-time.
He said: “Security is not a sector where you can afford to be 99.9 percent correct. You just have to be 100 percent. We believe that it is better for us to take decisions based on objectivity rather than subjectivity.
“And of course, that will lead to the cancellation of the visa-on-arrival process because the visa-on-arrival we understand is not a system that works, because I don’t expect you to just come into my country without me knowing that you are coming into my country.”
