FG denies it wants to start issuing visas on arrival for Africans

The deputy chairman of the African Union, Kwesi Quartey, was reported to have broken the news in Addis Ababa in a Facebook post. He praised the action as a “laudable move towards Africa’s integration agenda.” The AU’s political affairs office said in a tweet that Nigeria announced the action at a retreat for permanent representatives. A spokeswoman for the AU chairperson, Ebba Kalondo, was also reported to have said they were waiting for details from Nigeria as the news was “announced verbally with no formal communication.” Contacted yesterday, Information Minister Lai Mohammed asked for time to confirm from the appropriate quarters. He later sent a text message that no such decision was in place. The AU has advocated for a “single African passport” that aims to improve intra-African trade and has called for “the abolishment of visa requirements for all African citizens in all African countries by 2018.” Africans need visas to travel to 55 percent of the continent, according to AU figures. According to the African Development Bank’s 2017 Africa Visa Openness Report, Africans can get a visa on arrival in just 24 percent of other African countries, while North Americans, for example, have easier travel access on the continent. “Free movement on the continent would entail the implementation of continent-wide visa-free regimes including issuance of visas at ports of entry for Africans,” the AU suggested in February. Already Ghana, Rwanda, Mauritius and the Seychelles issue visas on arrival to all African passport holders, the AU’s Quartey has said. In 2016, the electronic African Union Passport was launched and issued to heads of state and governments, with the goal of expanding it to citizens.]]>