Despite being known as Africa’s giant and largest economy, Nigeria has become a country that most people rarely think of travelling to; even most of its citizens are eagerly looking for a way out in search of greener pastures.
This has been especially heightened by recent development of Nigerians feeling very unsafe as the President failed to show empathy in addressing pertinent concerns about the Nigerian army opening fire on #EndSARS protesters on Tuesday, in his national speech on Thursday, October 22 2020.
As such, many citizens tweeted about their eagerness to ‘japa’ and relocate to neighbouring countries such as Canada, Ghana and the likes, and started making inquiries about the cost and processes of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), International English Language Testing System (IELTS), Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), passport and visa systems.
Why is this so though? Well, over the years, asides being known as Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria has accumulated the title of being the poverty capital of the world, with 40.1 percent (or 82.9 million) poor persons out of its 200 million population.
This is in addition to insecurity issues, ranging from the Boko Haram insurgency, religious and ethnical clashes, criminal activities including armed robbery, burglars, fraudulent practices such as the popularly known yahoo boys (or 419). This insecurity extends to plague food production and supply in our country as Nigeria’s production capacity is rather low and most of the nation’s consumption is gotten from importation of goods and services.
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Rising unemployment, inflation among others have engulfed rising insecurity on all grounds causing most Nigerians to clamour for a way out of the country and escalating levels of brain drain.
How then do Nigerians find a way out amidst the plethora of national challenges, you might ask?
Numerous tales have permeated the mouths and ears of Nigerians including how people have resorted to various traveling means from going by sea, road, air, and even trekking, all in a bid for a better life.
Well, officially the legal way out or into a country is through a passport and visa. And while, many Nigerians are lining up on a daily basis and hustling to save up funds to get passports and visas into other countries, the big question is how many foreign persons are eager to get Nigerian passports? What really is the worth of the Nigerian passport?
For starters, the much relatively lower demand for the Nigerian passport is evident compared to passport for other countries such as Canada, Australia, the United States, United Kingdom and Germany among others, which are the top popular choices for Nigerians to migrate to in search of better living standards.
Also, about 4.5 million international trips were recorded across all Nigeria’s borders in 2018 as against 3.7 million trips by foreigners in 2017, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) findings revealed, signifying more outflows than inflows of persons.
A recent report by Quartz Africa notes that the number of Nigerian immigrants to Canada has been rising for five years straight as data published by the Canadian government shows that the number of Nigerians issued permanent resident permits has tripled since 2015, outstripping some of Canada’s biggest immigrant sources including India, China and Philippines.
In 2019 alone, Canada welcomed 341,000 immigrants in total (about 10,000 above its target) as part of its immigration policy to attract skilled workers, further ripping Nigeria of its talented citizens due to Nigerians’ deplorable living conditions.
In the same vein, the 2016 American Community Survey estimates that 380,785 US residents report Nigerian ancestry.
Whereas passport applications in Nigeria increased by 40 percent in 2018 to slightly over 1 million from 720,958 in 2017, only 185,657 passports were issued at the Foreign Missions in 2018, which is 22 percent higher than 152,163 issued in 2017, based on the most recent Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS) statistics by the NBS.
This means that 825,501 (or 445 percent) extra Nigerians apply for the Nigerian passport than foreigners. Meanwhile, the number of visa issuance at the Foreign Missions was put at 120,697.
Officially in the year 2020, the Nigerian international passport costs N70,000 for the new 64-page passport valid for 10 years but N35,000 for five years while the 32-page passport costs N25,000 with 5-year validity at the NIS office.
Of course, this price varies depending on the connect or institution used to get the Nigerian international passport if one decides to boycott the tedious procedures and queues of the immigration service.
Meanwhile, the United States’ passport costs $110 for adults and $115 for minors, which translates into N41,910 and N43,815 respectively (at Nigeria’s official exchange rate of N381/$1), being way cheaper than the Nigerian passport.
However, obtaining a visa for foreign countries is the most stressful part for Nigerians as they have to undergo rigorous procedures of documentation and costly visas.
For USA, visa fees range from $160-$265 (approximately N70k – N100k) but this was recently hiked up by reciprocity fees of $80-$303 based on the 2017 Trump order, bringing US visa fees to $240-$568 (N92k to N217k).
Although the NIS puts visa fees to UK at $144 (N55k), the breakdown shows $87 (N33k) for visitors in transit, $125/$130 (N48-N50k) for standard visitors (short/6-month) but extends to $251 (N96k) for those who intend to study English, $472 (N180k) for 2-years, $694 (N265k) for 1-year special visit of parents to children in UK schools, $857 (N327k) for long-term (5-years), $1.074 (N410k) for 10-years.
Despite $75 (N29k) visa fees according to NIS, latest July 2020 report by Financial watch Nigeria estimates Visa fees for Canada at 815 $CAD (95k) including permanent residence (PR) but 325 $CAD (N237k) without PR and asides any other family members or dependents.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian visa fees for Americans, $180 (N69k) reduced to $150 (N58k). Of course, these visa fees all depend on the visa class and duration of travel.
Even after struggling to meet up with these visa and passport requirements, the interview aspect appears to be the most dreadful for Nigerians seeking to travel abroad. However, this process is considerably less tedious for foreigners who intend to come into Nigeria.
Out of 195 countries in the world today, the Nigerian passport ranks 91st according to Visa Restrictions Index, that is, almost halfway in comparison to other countries.
To put this in context, how many countries can one travel to visa-free with the Nigerian passport? Just 44 African-based countries, which is just 22 percent or less than a quarter of the total number of countries in the world, indicating the relatively lesser value of the Nigerian passport or visa.
Although, the Nigerian passport can be gotten by applying either physically or online via website submissions, the former is more prevalent with the electronic passport (e-passport) primarily reserved for Nigerian diplomats and top government officials.
