President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Monday in Abu Dhabi, have finalized a historic agreement, which has resulted in the immediate cessation of the visa ban placed on Nigerian travellers.
Furthermore, by this historic agreement, both Etihad Airlines and Emirates Airlines are to immediately resume flight schedules in and out of Nigeria, without any further delay.
More insights
As negotiated between the two Heads of State, this immediate restoration of flight activity, through these two airlines and between the two countries, does not involve any immediate payment by the Nigerian government.
In recognition of President Tinubu’s economic development diplomacy drive and proposals today presented by President Tinubu to his counterpart, an agreed framework has been established, which will involve several billions of U.S. dollars worth of new investments into the Nigerian economy across multiple sectors, including defence, agriculture and others, by the investment arms of the Government of the United Arab Emirates.
Additionally, President Tinubu is pleased to have successfully negotiated a joint, new foreign exchange liquidity programme between the two Governments, which will be announced in detail in the coming weeks.
The President wishes to commend the UAE President, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for his unalloyed friendship and his determined effort to join hands with him to fully normalize and reset to excellence, the standard of relations between the two important countries.
What you should know
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has just finished his attendance at the G-20 Summit as well as his investment drive in New Delhi, India before heading to the United Arab Emirates to seek partnership with the oil-rich country.
The president has noted that his administration would focus on increasing investments and enabling the ease of doing business to grow Nigeria’s economy and increase employment rates.
Recall that in October 2022, during the Buhari administration, The United Arab Emirates (UAE) immigration authorities imposed a visa ban on Nigerians, stating that all submitted applications would be rejected and fees non-refundable.
At the time, no concrete reason was given for the visa ban. Nairametrics reported that the notice to Nigerian travel agents stated:
- “All Dubai applications submitted are now rejected. It is general for Nigerians and approvals are on hold at the moment. Kindly advise your clients to resubmit C2=A0 applications when the issue is resolved between both governments.’’
Note that the statement highlighted the agriculture and defence sectors as possible investment points for the UAE. When Tinubu was in India, he secured up to $14 billion in investment pledges in the defence, power, and steel sectors of Nigeria’s economy, according to the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Yusuf Maitama Tuggar.
That’s why is the best man for the job.
More grace my president.
God bless Nigeria
God bless Mr President
Exactly Joseph!
As we all know, the average Nigerian is less concerned about the price of fuel that is now essentially a luxury item and about galloping biting inflation (caused by both the fuel price rise and the substantive devaluation of the Naira), rapidly eroding his income and savings, but is rather more bothered by getting a visa to visit the UAE.
Perhaps the now likely more than 100 million Nigerians suffering from extreme poverty (or the now likely more than 140 million Nigerians suffering from multidimensional poverty) will simply take their minds of their wretched conditions with a quick jaunt to Dubai (since it’s unlikely the Emirati would allow most of them to relocate to the UAE).