- Muhammad Babandede, the comptroller general of the Nigeria Immigration Service said all Africans will be allowed to come to Nigeria wit...
- Muhammad Babandede, the comptroller general of the Nigeria Immigration Service said all Africans will be allowed to come to Nigeria without visa starting from January 2020
- Babandede said President Buhari will soon make the official announcement
- The NIS boss added that Nigeria is currently building a border and control centre which will be inaugurated in 2020
The federal government has given the approval allowing all Africans to come to Nigeria without visa starting from January 2020, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Muhammad Babandede, the comptroller general of the NIS made this known at the inauguration of the Africa–Frontex Intelligence Community (AFIC) on Wednesday, December 11, in Abuja.
Legit.ng gathers that Babandede said President Muhammadu Buhari will soon make the official announcement.
“The announcement would be made soon by the President of the Federation.
”But we cannot succeed without a tool like AFIC. This tool is keen if we want to implement an effective free movement across our border.
“The tool is actually coming at the right time. AFIC would help African countries especially Nigeria that want to open its border for all Africans to enter at will. And now that tool is available, it would make the work easier for us,” he said.
He specifically commended the EU and Frontex delegates for establishing the risk analysis centre, adding that analysis could not be done physically without analytical system.
“I was opportune to be at the Frontex headquarters, and I came with useful tools which are for border and control centre," he said.
Babandede added that the tools donated by Frontex will be used in the building of border and control centre which will be inaugurated in 2020.
He gave assurance that all the equiment donated by the bodies will be well used and maintained just as he called for more training of officers.
Roman Fantini, the head of sector, Frontex, assured the immigration service of training the officers as requested to help maintain the system and usage.
Ms Eleni Zerzelidou, EU head of delegates, appreciated the immigration service for beefing up the collaboration by taking a step further to ensure border opening for all Africans by 2020.
Frontex is an agency of the European Union (EU)which is tasked with border control of the European Schengen Area, in coordination with border and coast guard of Schengen area member states.
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the NIS said that it would soon begin the introduction of different categories of visa for the country as one part of its visa reform programme.
Babandede made this known in an interview with NAN.
The Immigration boss said that the considered visa categories include visa for tourists and those who wish to invest in the country for people wanting to retire in Nigeria.
Source:Legit.ng
