Ikechi Uko, a travel business consultant, and tourism developer, disclosed expected benefits of Nigeria’s improved visa openness rating.
Recently, Nigeria was listed as number 6 out of 54 countries on the African Development Bank (AfDB) 2024 African Visa Openness Index (AVOI).
Experts has described the development as ‘massive,’ as Nigeria before now was seen as a difficult country to visit by Africans.
In January 2020, President Buhari announced that all Africans could visit Nigeria with a visa on arrival. Though it took some time to improve the process, eventually, Nigeria got it right.
In September 2024, with the advocacy of Lola Ade-John, the former minister of tourism and Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior, the Visa on Arrival fees dropped by over 50 percent.
At the Vision 2020 project of the federal government, the idea then was that transit visas will enable Nigerian airlines to dominate West Africa and make Lagos airport a hub.
Ikechi Uko said the rating would lead to improved tourism receipts. Citing Rwanda, Gambia, and the Seychelles are true tourism success stories based on visa openness, he stressed that these countries contributing adequately to export income are also in the Top 10 on the AVOI list.
Uko mentioned that Ghana has issued an order allowing all visitors to apply for a visa on arrival from the 1st of December until the 15th of January 2025, in order to generate more tourists for the already Successful December in Ghana Tourism project.
Read also: Why travel within Africa is expensive despite visa openness initiative
He however noted that Nigeria might not benefit tourism wise because there is no national plan to attract African tourists, adding that Lagos, Cross River, and a few other states have been marketing globally but not at the scale expected from a big country like Nigeria.
He noted that compared to Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and the Gambia, Nigeria is yet to start, adding that hopefully Nigeria would wake up soon.
According to him, with the success of the Arik and Virgin Nigeria experience, the visa openness will be a huge advantage like Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Dubai had done.
“Nigeria now has the right Visa Policy, but Nigerian airlines have regressed in importance. Air Peace hasn’t been perfect to Arik as it has not connected as many places as Arik once did. Most Cameroonians in America still fly through Lagos, connecting on Arik and ASKY to Cameroon.
“Ibom Air has not yet stepped into the shoes of Virgin Nigeria with West African connections. It flies only to Accra on the West Coast. Our airport has not improved its connectivity since 2010, even with the new Chinese Built Airports in Abuja and Lagos.
“There are no top quality transfers and Interlining desks and sections at our airport. In the last one Year I have travelled through Lagos, Abuja, Cotonou, Accra, Lome, Abidjan, Banjul and Dakar Airports and I know of those Airports that have better Transfer Connections than Lagos or Abuja,” Uko said.
He said Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions tourism (MICE tourism) is the new revenue earner for most countries.
“Kigali shot up to the 2nd biggest MICE destination in Africa after Cape Town based on Visa Openness. I saw this growth happen before my eyes. In 2014, I was honoured in Rwanda with one of the highest Awards.
“Then, the whole MICE project was at its beginning, and I knew the team that worked on the project. Today, it is drawing millions of dollars to Rwanda. Ghana is using 5th Freedom as a strategy to grow its airport as a hub. MICE are the lowest hanging fruits for most countries,” the tourism developer said.
He suggested that Nigeria develop an overarching national strategy to connect the dots and grow its economy based on the policy of visa openness.
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