Nigeria considering issuing visas on arrival to foreign investors

Yemi Osinbajo, Nigerian Vice President, said that their government was contemplating issuing visas on arrival to overseas investors and businessmen. He said that this was a move to eliminate many red tape issues that had stagnated the business environment in Nigeria. Osinbajo stated this while speaking at the public presentation and premier yearly lecture of The Interview magazine in Abuja. He reminded that Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian President, had earlier launched a committee to energise the business climate in the African country. He said that the goal of committee, chaired by Osinbajo, was to scale up the World Bank’s ease of doing business index of Nigeria by 50 places before the end of 2017. Highlighting on the theme of the event, named, ‘Why start-ups fail and strategies to save them,’ the vice president was quoted by the Vanguard as saying that it was the government’s responsibility to facilitate a healthy business climate in Nigeria. He said that the government’s responsibility was to provide a proper environment for start-ups. Osinbajo, however, agreed that the problem troubling Nigeria was that their approval procedures were unduly tough. The visa on arrival that they were proposing would ease the current process, allowing foreign businesspersons to get visas on arrival once they apply there. He also disclosed that the government had a plan, which would review business registrations process in the country in order to make it seamless for start-ups. Osinabajo also added that various regulations were being planned by the president. He stated that government departments needed to interact with each other to ease the processes for investors. The government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was obligated to make sure that people could do business with ease and its effort was to make it comfortable for people to avail the different amenities, which would make the business environment people-friendly, Osinbajo said. If you are planning to travel to Nigeria to do business, approach Y-Axis to get personalised attention and assistance to file for a visa at one of our 19 offices located in the major cities of India.