Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari has unveiled a new biometric visa policy, intended to improve transparency of their security database.
The president announced the policy dubbed ‘Nigeria Visa Policy (NVP 2020)’ is in a bid to attract innovation, specialized skills and requisite knowledge from abroad.
Buhari had in November 2019 hinted the introduction of the new visa policy which he described as a “strategic decision to bring down barriers that have hindered the free movement of people within the continent”.
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As part of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) four-year border strategy, NVP 2020 was birthed to increase tourism and improve African integration while safeguarding national security.
It will also pave way for visa on arrival scheme for short visits for passport holders of African Union member countries.
The new policy presents 79 categories which the presidency says is to ensure “visas are more efficiently matched to the purpose of travel, thus helping improve the efficiency of processing and response”.
The government also announced a new biometric visa database which will conduct checks for persons on both domestic and international INTERPOL watch list.