The United States may soon lift the ban on visa imposed on Nigeria and five other countries by the President Donald Trump administration as the Nigerian Government seemed to have taken serious steps to address issues that led to the visa restrictions.
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, gave this indication in an interview with reporters at the ongoing 5th Session of the United States- Nigeria Binational Commission, holding in Washington DC. The Minister noted that after productive deliberations over the issue, the US authorities have assured they could lift the ban if the Nigerian government resolves the issue in one month.
The US had on Friday officially imposed immigrant visa restrictions on Nigeria, Eritrea, Sudan, Mynmar, Kyrgyzstan and Tanzania in an expanded ban, following alleged lack of credible background investigation system that security groups such as Interpol can rely on to vet and certify the originality of prospective immigrants to the US.
The Minister disclosed that the US was worried over discrepancies of Nigerian data system and third party involvement in the management of the passport system especially information and data on lost and stolen passports.
“One of their concerns is that the data we provide should not go through third party and we have been using a third party in the management of our passport issues. So, they are a bit worried that security information should not go through private third parties before the become available to them.
“So, we have been doing a lot already to address this. We are putting in place some data bases and ICT architecture that will capture these data and make them accessible in real time to interpole and all the member countries of interpole and it should be up and running within about a month,” he said.
The Minister said further that in the meantime the federal government is also providing direct information on the lost and stolen passports within the six technical areas the US raised.
The US had urged Nigeria to begin to issue electronic passports and keep them informed of all the details so that they can tell the genuine and non-genuine ones. The US had also requested Nigeria to share data and information on suspected terrorists and known terrorists.
Onyeama noted that Nigeria has satisfied most of the requirements, adding that it is also addressing the outstanding issue of lost and stolen passports. “So, we pretty much agreed with them that once we address these issues hopefully in not too distant future we will be removed from these restrictions,” he said.
He noted that Nigeria is providing the information and data directly to interpole for member states like the US to access. He added that the Nigerian Immigration Service has put in place the architecture and technology to address the outstanding issue in one month.
Innocent Odoh, reporting from Washington DC
