Nigeria to sign visa-free pact with 8 countries

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
.

Onyeama announced this in Abuja on Tuesday at a news confernce to mark
one year of President Mohammadu Buhari’s Administration.

The minister, who did not disclose the names of the countries making up
the bloc, noted with concern that trading among African countries had
been very low.

He, however, said that with the new idea by the President Mohammadu
Buhari led administration, “it is expected that there will be upsurge in
 economic activities.

“ 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 also added that it would not help if the continent continued to
export just raw materials to developed nations.

He said the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment was working
towards enhancing doing business with ease in Nigeria.

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.

Onyeama said the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment had been
mandated to ensure that there was reduction in the time it took to
register companies.