• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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System breakdown disrupts visa on arrival at Lagos airport

System breakdown disrupts visa on arrival at Lagos airport

Visitors coming into Nigeria from various parts of the world are experiencing difficulty  obtaining the visa on arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) as a result of major system breakdown which has lingered for about one week now.

BusinessDay’s checks show that visa on arrival which takes an average of 10 to 20 minutes to process at the airport is currently taking between three to five hours because the printers and internet at the Lagos airport are not working.

The situation has been compounded for visitors who were not informed by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) of the major increase in visa fee from $45 (N16,200) to $135 (N48,600), showing a significant increase by 200 percent.

A Kenyan visitor who craved anonymity said he came into the country on Tuesday but spent over four hours at the airport just to obtain the country’s visa.

“I landed at MMIA on Tuesday at 11.55 am local time and left the airport around 3.45 pm. It was four hours of just trying to get the system to work. The printers that the airport authorities had in the main hall for visa on arrival broke down, so they had to go do the printout elsewhere. As a result of this, the process of applications and biometrics were also done elsewhere,” the Kenyan visitor said.

He also lamented the change in visa fee which was not pre-announced.

“Initially, visa on arrival was about $45 but when we were filling out applications at the airport, it was $135. There is something about the price breakdown that shows biometrics inclusion, which is also a challenge because even with the biometric fees, there is still a $20 processing fee,” the visitor said.

Richard Quest, CNN International’s business correspondent, told BusinessDay in Lagos that it took his colleague three hours to process the visa on arrival at the Lagos airport on Monday.

Quest advised that Nigerian aviation authorities should concentrate on getting the main airports up and running and less chaotic.

“The chaos is just phenomenal when you come to the airport and I am thinking why it has to be this way,” Quest said. “It is simple. Those with visas, those without visas and those with visa on arrival should be told where to stand, so they can be checked one by one. It took my colleague three hours just to do the visa on arrival at the Nigerian airport. So concentrate on getting those things right because they will unleash business potentials.”

The Kenyan visitor further explained that last year when he visited Nigeria, there was nothing like biometric fees; all that were required were application letter, letter of invite, certification from the company inviting or hosting you, your passport biodata page, passport photograph and $45 for visa fee.

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He said back in his country, visitors are only required to submit the requirements to the authorities at the airport, who help them process the visas and issue them, but in Nigeria, visitors run helter-skelter just to get their visas.

He said the situation was compounded by the slow internet Wi-Fi at the airport, making it very difficult to complete the process online.

BusinessDay’s checks show despite the increase in price, Nigeria still issues one month single entry visa on arrival. Experts say $135 visa on arrival fee may be on the high side for a country like Nigeria looking to attract foreign direct investment. Further checks show that Kenya charges $50 for visa on arrival, Rwanda charges $50, Egypt $25, and Ethiopia $50.

Abdullahi Musa Usman, comptroller, Lagos Airport, who admitted the breakdown in a section of the airport where visa on arrival is issued, said the situation has been addressed and visitors seeking visa on arrival have been moved to another wing of the airport.

“We have two wings, which are E-wing and D-wing. We had a breakdown in the D-wing, so we had to transfer people to E-wing in the same airport to make sure the problem is sorted out. As I speak to you, the printers are working at the wing where they have been moved to,” Usman said.

He said the service also discovered that the network at the airport was slow, so it has improved it to the Local Area Network (LAN).

Speaking on the visa on arrival fee, the comptroller said NIS has introduced biometric visas.
“The additional cost we introduced is as a result of inclusion of biometrics. The visa fee remains what it is but biometric fees were included. The visa fee is the government policy and I am only implementing what the government says,” Usman said.

NIS issued 58,000 visas on arrival at the Lagos airport in 2019. Experts say to improve these numbers and generate more revenue for the government, the NIS needs to improve its processes and procedures.

 

IFEOMA OKEKE