The Federal Government on Friday announced plans to cancel the visa-on-arrival policy.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made the announcement during the closing ceremony of a weeklong capacity-building training for personnel of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
The capacity building training is one of the measures being adopted by the NIS to document everyone visiting the country.
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.
According to Tunji-Ojo, the Federal Government would introduce landing and exit cards, which prospective visitors will pre-fill before coming into the country in place of the visa-on-arrival policy
He emphasised the need to harmonise the immigration data centre and have integrated solutions for decisions that has to do with migration into Nigeria.
He explained that such harmonisation would make it impossible for approvals to be given without the clearance of Interpol, the criminal records system, and all background-checking agencies in real-time.
“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,” Tunji-Ojo said. (Channels)