Reprieve As UAE Lifts Ban On Nigerians

The Federal Government has reached an agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to allow Nigerian passport holders to obtain visas for travel to the Arab nation starting today, July 15, 2024.

The Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this on Monday when he briefed State House correspondents following the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

The announcement comes more than two years after the UAE suspended visa issuance to Nigerians following a period of protracted diplomatic row with Africa’s most populous nation.

It also comes about two months after UAE national carrier Emirates Airlines announced the resumption of flights to Nigeria. The airline said in May that its daily Lagos-Dubai flights would resume from October 1, 2024.

Emirates Airlines suspended its Dubai-Lagos flights in 2022 over its inability to repatriate trapped funds in Nigeria in the heat of the diplomatic fireworks between the two countries.

Nigeria and the UAE have a long history of restriction of flights between both countries based on certain unresolved issues surrounding the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA). Visa restrictions later surfaced as diplomatic fireworks continued between Nigeria and the UAE, which is a top destination for Nigerian migrants and tourists.

In September 2023, President Bola Tinubu met with UAE President, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi, to smoothen the rough edges in the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Details later…