The Federal Government, in an attempt to foster more foreign investments in order to reflate the ailing economy, is set to introduce visa on arrival package that is aimed at removing all the unnecessary bottlenecks usually faced by prospective foreign investors in the process of visa procurement.
The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, made the disclosure in Abuja, yesterday, while speaking at a formal public presentation and first annual lecture of the Interview Magazine with the theme: “why start-ups fail and strategies to save them”; organized by Mr. Azubuike Ishiekwene and team. Osibanjo, who stated that in one of his interactions with some international business partners and Diplomats, he was inundated with some startling revelations of the difficulties that are usually encountered by foreign investors while processing Nigerian visa.
The Vice President vowed that the present administration was committed to mustering the political will required in creating an enabling environment for both local business people and direct foreign investors to thrive in Nigeria. This, he said, will be done through several strategies that government is already working out. One of such strategies is the idea of allowing prospective foreign investors to come into the country, apply and get visa on arrival.
“We intent to introduce visa on arrival. Visa on arrival is one that is already in the regulations but that usually involves you applying ahead. But the visa on arrival which we are introducing is the one that once you arrive, you apply and get your visa on arrival”, he said. “Our processes are too difficult, fraught with all manners of documents and there is a need for us to free up those process, if we must attract more foreign investments we must take a look at the processes of letting people into the country”, he added.
