Visa on arrival for Africans

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday December 11, announced that starting from January 2020, African passport holders could apply for a visa upon arrival in Nigeria. He made the announcement during the Aswan Forum on peace and sustainable development in Egypt. It is part of the country’s commitment to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the Single African Air Transport Market with the Free Movement of Persons Protocol.  The AfCFTA, the single African Air Transport Market and Protocol were launched and signed by close to 50 countries at the African Union (AU) Summit in March 2018 in Kigali. The AfCFTA has created one African market of 1.2 billion people, with a GDP of US$2.5 trillion and with a potential to boost intra-African trade by 52 per cent by 2020.  It is expected to benefit African producers, consumers and traders.

The AfCFTA hit a hurdle in 2018 when Nigeria pulled out days before it was due to sign the agreement. President Buhari had said that he needed further consultations with Nigerians. The country eventually joined up in July 2019 after the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiation consulted with 27 groups, including trade unions.  With this new visa on arrival policy, Nigeria follows in the steps of Rwanda, which had declared visa upon arrival without prior application from January 1, 2018.

An Africa with open borders and open skies is considered open for business, as the free movement of persons removes obstacles for Africans to visit, explore, and invest across the continent. For several years and especially since signing of AfCFTA, a number of African countries  have put in place visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to catalyse tourism and attract investment, alongside measures to improve their business environment. As of 2018, Africans did not need a visa to travel to 25 per cent of other African countries, up from 22 per cent in 2017 and 20 per cent in 2016. Africans could get visas on arrival in 24 per cent of other African countries, while Africans needed visas to travel to 51 per cent of other African countries in 2018, down from 54 per cent in 2017 and 55 per cent in 2016.

Nigeria is not on the list of 20 most visa-open countries in West Africa. The most open countries in West Africa include Benin, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Togo. Africans do not require a visa to enter the Republic of Benin. We commend the government for this decision to join the list of visa-open countries in Africa. However, Nigerians require information and support on this policy initiative and the opportunities offered by AfCFTA so they can take advantage of them. The relevant ministries at the federal and state levels should work with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, the various chambers of commerce and industry, and other relevant civil society organisations to build Nigeria’s competitiveness to be able to cope with free trade area competitive context.

It will be recalled that Nigeria had earlier hesitated to join AfCFTA because many of those consulted feared that increased regional integration would lead to unfair competition for jobs and the goods they produce. The Federal Government must also take measures to address the security issues to straddle the new policy.  This is important given the difficulties the country is facing with terrorism, insurgency, organised crime and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

Furthermore, while there is 100 per cent reciprocity of visa policies in West Africa, this is not the case in other regional communities on the continent. Across the continent, reciprocity of visa policy is still at 19 per cent. The government should negotiate with other countries to achieve 100 per cent visa reciprocity for its citizens. Nigeria should pursue rules-based competition that make trade among African countries as liberal as possible, and enables its citizens and companies to compete effectively in AfCFTA. Nigeria’s enormous market puts AfCFTA in a much stronger position to negotiate with regional bodies in other parts of the world. Nigeria must take corresponding advantage of the opportunities that AfCFTA offers.