NIS boss, Muhammed Babandede
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in July issued no fewer than 2,194 visas on arrival to foreigners who arrived through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
A top official of the NIS told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the condition of anonymity in Lagos on Tuesday that most of the beneficiaries were investors coming into the country.
The source said the visa on arrival procedure was targeted at investors coming into Nigeria to do business as part of the Ease of Doing Business policy of the Federal Government.
“We have upgraded our visa on arrival from email-based to web-based to improve our services. Applicants can now log into the website and fill in their details and also get their approvals directly from there instead of using a third party which was what we were doing before because they have to send a representative here to process it”.
“So, the increase in the issuance is to ease procedure and encourage more investors to come into the country to invest”.
According to the source, the foreigners are issued visas valid for one month which can be extended for another month if the need arises.
The source, however, said some applicants often faced problems on arrival at the airport because they used third party emails to make the request or failed to provide all the required documents.
The source said that the Comptroller General of the NIS, Mr Mohammed Babandede, had directed that SERVICOM and anti-corruption desks should be set up at the airport to improve service delivery.
The visa on arrival policy began in Nigeria in 2012 with Kenya and a few African countries, but came into full stream with the introduction of the ease of doing business policy by the Federal Government in May 2017. (NAN)
