Barely six months after it introduced new online visa payment for all categories of foreigners entering Nigeria, there are indications that the Nigeria Immigration Service may once again change the visa regulation for travellers, particularly Africans coming into the country.
Sources close to the service told our correspondent on Wednesday that the service was planning to suspend the online payment of visas for Africans travelling into Nigeria starting from January 2020.
Rather, it was gathered that the service intended to issue visas to African travellers on arrival at any of its port of entries especially the international airports across the country.
This change in policy, sources close to the service, alleged that may further fuel corruption among officers of the service as of its personnel may turn it “into a racket”.
According to one source, it is at the port of entry that immigration personnel would determine whether to issue such African citizens visas to enter Nigeria or not.
The source however, said that for a policy that was scheduled to commence in less than a month, the service was yet to inform and sensitise the public, warning that it may bring another round of crisis for the service and the nation at large, while leading to a frosty relationship between Nigeria and other African countries.
The source said, “This policy is still kept in the dark, rather than being in public domain.
“They should let the public be aware of this plan so that it will not cause problems for the country.
“Travellers will only pay on arrival and it is on arrival they will decide whether to issue you the visa or not.
“This is an old system, which didn’t work and I don’t see it working even now.”
Public Relations Officer of the NIS, Mr Sunday James, could not be reached for comments.
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