AFRICA

Nigeria Immigration To introduce New Visa Regime

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) on Tuesday disclosed the planned introduction of a new visa regime, named: “Economic Trust Visa”.

Addressing a press conference to commence the 60th-anniversary celebration of the NIS at the Service headquarters in Abuja, the Acting Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Caroline Adepoju, said: “We are looking at using our visa regime to support the vision of the Nigerian government in improving our economy.

“We have proposed the issuance of an Economic Trust Visa whereby we will assist interested investors in checking the profiles of their would-be partners.”

She added that: “We will work hand in hand with security agencies in Nigeria to ensure that foreign direct investors are not swindled of their hard-earned money.”

She revealed that the Service will invest more in border management in the years ahead, stressing that more logistics would be made available for personnel to do their job.

Adepoju said: “We are deploying technology, we are deploying well-trained personnel in all the borders.”

She said the standardization of the services of NIS would continue by opening personnel to training to conform with internationally accepted standards.

She promised that more passport offices would be opened across the country while all passport processes would be automated to avoid human contact.

Adepoju said: “Our technical partners are working hard to ensure that we have enough passport booklets because when there are booklets, sharp practices will also be reduced.”

Michael Olugbode in Abuja