Immigration Mulls Introduction Of Various Visa Categories – TheNigerialawyer

The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) says it will soon
introduce various categories of visas for the country as part of
its visa reform.

The Comptroller General of Immigration (CGI) Mohammed Babandede
disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) in Benin.

Babandede said that the visa categories being considered were
the visa for tourists, visa for retirees outside the country who
wish to retire in Nigeria and visa for incentive/investors.

According to him, “If you have money, genuine money, we are
encouraging visitors who have the intellectual capacity to assist
in building capacity in Nigeria.

“If the visa is not going to break National security, good
economy, we would encourage it to be delivered in a transparent way
to cut corruption. “We will ensure that Nigerians realizes that
there is reforms based on the anti-corruption strategy of Mr.
President.”

The CGI told NAN that the 2019 Comptroller General of
Immigration annual conference did a lot of group work towards
achieving the various reforms in the Service within the shortest
possible time. He added that there were some quick wins that could
be done immediately, noting that one such was in the area of
passport.

“As a quick win, we promised to make the prices of passport
available to the public to see and read the price and pay for
it.

“One of the quick wins we have done is to standardize the
operations of the passport, we want Nigerians to know the process
of getting a passport and visa on the passport. “So it is not just
the reforms, but what is in the reforms is for greater service
delivery.

“The important thing is that in each reform we do, we consider
national security,” he said. Babandede said that the current
“Operation Swift Response” under the supervision of the office of
the national security officer was intended to tackle border
insecurity.

He said that the present borders’ closure has helped the Nation
to curtail not just the people who enter, but also Nigerians who
take the bush paths to travel without passports.

He disclosed that a month ago the NIS records showed that not
fewer than 11,000 persons have been prevented from traveling out
through illegal means.

The Immigration boss added that the service also deported
persons who were not supposed to be in the country. Similarly, Mr.
Kayode Eniolorunda, the Comptroller, NIS, Edo Command, said that
the CGI conference was the most important event in the calendar of
the service.

Eniolorunda said that this was because far-reaching decisions
and reform strategies were usually conceived and adopted during the
conference.

He said that the State command hosting of the 2019 conference
was in view of the theme which has to do with migration management
and the role of NIS. He noted that irregular migration like human
trafficking and smuggling in persons thrive and was very rampant in
the state.

He, however, said that e-registration would commence in the
state before the end of the year as equipment and facilities needed
were already on ground.NAN