NIS Introduces ‘Trust Visa’ to Deepen Foreign Investments in Nigeria

Olufemi Adeyemi

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has concluded plan to introduce a special visa on arrival, known as Business Trust Visas for foreigners who are coming into the country for the purpose of investment.

Currently, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos Command of NIS revealed that it issued 53,644 Visa on Arrival (VoA) to foreigners in 2022, and intends to double this number in the near future but with attention to foreign investors who are prepared to invest in Nigeria.

The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Carol Adepoju, disclosed this during a facility tour and inauguration of new Visa on Arrival office at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA) Lagos.

She said the Business Trust Visa would address the fear of fraud from foreigners coming into the country as a lot of them were not convinced about the sincerity of their partners.

The CGI disclosed that the service in collaboration with the Department of Security Service (DSS) and other security agencies would carry out in-depth background checks on their business partners in Nigeria.

She said: “As a result of the prevalence of international crimes, especially the ones that are done online where you have a lot of fictitious business offers, there are so many investors with lots of funds that want to invest in Nigeria because of Nigeria’s population, sophistication and climate. All these are attractive to investors, but some of them are afraid.

“They do not know the calibre of people they are dealing with. You will need partners sometimes here. So, when we have that Trust Visa, we would partner with security agencies like DSS and other agencies that are entrusted with security in the country. When you give us the contact of whosoever you want to partner with in Nigeria, we will do a background check on such a person and we will let you know if he is a trustworthy person or not.

“The moment we are able to tell you who he is, we will guarantee you that your investment with him would be a success. It is a way of attracting investors into the country. We will remove the doubt and when there are people of shady characters, too, we will let them know.”

Meanwhile, the MMIA Command issued 53,644 Visa on Arrival (VoA) to foreigners in 2022.

Adepoju emphasised that the enhanced VoA facility at the airport from one to three would boost facilitation of foreigners coming into the country in addition to enhancing ease-of-doing-business.

The Comptroller, MMIA Command, Mrs. Adeola Adesokan, stated that the performance of the command improved in the past year following digitalisation of its processes.

June 17, 2023