Foreign investors wishing to invest in Nigeria may now apply for Business Trust Visas, according to plans finalised by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
Carol Adepoju, the Comptroller-General of the NIS, provided this information during a facility tour and the opening of the new Lagos Murtala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA) visa-on-arrival office.
She claimed that the Business Trust Visa would allay Americans’ concerns about foreigners being deceitful as many of them had second thoughts about their partners’ genuineness.
CGI announced that the service would conduct extensive background checks on its business partners in Nigeria in coordination with the Department of Security Service (DSS) and other security agencies.
She said: “As a result of the prevalence of international crimes, especially the ones that are done online where you have a lot of fictitious business offers, there are so many investors with lots of funds that want to invest in Nigeria because of Nigeria’s population, sophistication and climate. All these are attractive to investors, but some of them are afraid.
“They do not know the calibre of people they are dealing with. You will need partners sometimes here. So, when we have that Trust Visa, we would partner with security agencies like DSS and other agencies that are entrusted with security in the country. When you give us the contact of whosoever you want to partner with in Nigeria, we will do a background check on such a person and let you know if he is trustworthy.
“The moment we can tell you who he is, we will guarantee you that your investment with him would be a success. It is a way of attracting investors into the country. We will remove the doubt and when there are people of shady characters, too, we will let them know.”
In the meantime, 53,644 foreigners received Visa on Arrival (VoA) from the MMIA Command in 2022.
Adepoju stressed that in addition to making it easier to conduct business, the upgraded VoA facility at the airport from one to three would facilitate more foreigners into the nation.
According to Mrs Adeola Adesokan, the MMIA Command’s Comptroller, the command’s performance has improved over the past year due to the digitalization of its operations.
