Over the weekend, Nigeria’s Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye confirmed that the country was unable to raise the required funds to pay its printers to print new visa stickers and travel passports.
This was made known in a memo made available by the permanent secretary through his twitter account titled “Supply of Visa Stickers and Passport Booklets to our Missions: Global Communications Advisory for Nigerians.”
He blamed the difficulty in accessing funds on the result of the Treasury Single Account. The permanent Secretary further asked Nigerians who may be experiencing difficulty in obtaining any of these documents from the country’s foreign missions to be a little patient.
I issued a statement on the supply of Visa Stickers and Passport booklets to our Missions abroad. pic.twitter.com/Iwd9t4YUuK
— Sola Enikanolaiye (@PS_MFANigeria) October 22, 2016
Following this memo, there are reports that the Nigerian High Commission in South Africa is currently unable to issue visas for business, visitor or tourist applicants wishing to visit the country. This is because the commission has run out of visa labels. Those seeking for visas into Nigeria are being turned back or asked to return at a future date. It was also gathered that the High Commission has advised people who are in desperate need to travel to Nigeria to contact Nigeria’s embassies or consulates in other nearest countries.
This “development” is a huge embarrassment to Nigeria, which has lost its place as the largest economy in the continent. It comes at the time when the country is grappling with ways to come out of a recession caused by fall in global oil prices. The level of investment in the country has also dropped drastically due to the uncertainties of the country’s economic policies.
The shortage of Visa labels and passport booklets would definitely cause tension among applicants, as they will be unable to transact businesses or even meet scheduled appointments.
What really is a visa label?
A visa label is placed in the holder’s passport or travel document. It contains information about the holder’s entitlements to travel and stay in the country that he or she is visiting. It also provides other conditions such as the ability to work or study in the country.
