In a news
conference to mark one year of President Mohammadu Buhari’s Administration in Abuja
on Tuesday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, says plans
have been concluded to sign visa-free pacts with a bloc of eight African
countries to promote economic partnership on the continent.
The Minister
said that with the new idea by the President Mohammadu Buhari led administration,
“it is expected that there will be upsurge in economic activities.
He,
however, did not disclose the names of the countries making up the bloc, noted
with concern that trading among African countries had been very low
In his
words: “Africa is the centrepiece of our foreign policy but it is a paradox
that as a Nigerian, you cannot go to an African country without a visa unlike
what is obtainable in Western Europe.
“To
address this as a leader in the continent, the country is at a point of
introducing an initiative to promote African trade as part of the country’s
foreign policy of Africa as the centrepiece”, he said.
Onyeama
said Nigeria was trying to come up with an initiative, like the one in Western
Europe where one could enter any sister country without a visa. According to
him, what we are trying to do at the ministry is to promote visa-free, free
movement of business people.
“We want
to start with about eight countries or see if they come up as a group of eight
countries. At the presidential level, they agreed to that, and signed up to
free movement.
“If we can
achieve that within a year, then other countries may want to join and we
believe this is a better way to go than institutional ECOWAS etc, as countries
take so long to ratify agreements.
“We
believe we can just start off, eight countries and they agree among themselves,
then others will come in,” he said.
Onyeama
said the ministry was working with the immigration to see rise in the number of
visa issued to businessmen and investors “It is one of the cardinal strategies
for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to facilitate investors
doing business in Nigeria”, he said.
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