From U.S., extra bother for Nigeria’s companies, tech innovators, college students

Ambassador Joe Keshi is Nigeria’s retired high profession diplomat to the USA (US). On this interview, Keshi diagnoses the US discount, final week, of the five-year visa validity for Nigerians to 3 months, efficient July 8, 2025, stressing the pressing want for Nigeria to barter and construct a cordial relationship with the US as this implies extra bother for Nigeria’s companies, tech innovators and college students primarily based on the price of visa renewal each three months. Though the US Mission in Nigeria, which introduced the brand new regime, initially gave reciprocity as the rationale for the motion, it later reversed itself, saying it was not a reciprocal motion.

In accordance with the embassy, the measure additionally has no reference to Nigeria’s stance on accepting deportees from Venezuela, the current introduction of e-visa insurance policies, or its affiliations with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South-Africa (BRICS), a bunch of 5 rising economies which has expanded into 11 nations and which Nigeria is searching for to hitch. However quite, it’s “part of an ongoing world evaluate of using US visas by different international locations utilizing technical and safety benchmarks to safeguard US immigration techniques.”

“We worth our longstanding partnership with Nigeria and stay dedicated to working intently with the Nigerian public and authorities officers to assist them meet these standards and benchmarks, thereby guaranteeing protected, lawful, and mutually useful journey between our nations,” the embassy wrote in a Friday put up on X.

The Federal Authorities faulted the US motion, with officers suggesting completely different causes however saying the US motion was not justified. The Presidency issued a press release, noting that the declare of reciprocity as the rationale for the visa coverage didn’t precisely mirror the fact of Nigeria’s present visa coverage towards US residents.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, for his half, linked the brand new coverage to the rejection of Venezuelan deportees from the US, a declare the nation’s Nigerian Mission denied. The minister mentioned the stress on Nigeria to just accept Venezuelan deportees is unfair because the nation already has its personal issues.

“It is going to be tough for a rustic like Nigeria to just accept Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria. Now we have sufficient issues of our personal”, he mentioned throughout a dwell program on TV. “We can not settle for Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria for crying out loud. We have already got 230 million individuals. You’ll be the identical individuals that will castigate us if we acquiesce to accepting Venezuelans from US prisons to be introduced in”. In the meantime, the retired diplomat says: “The worst half is that this coverage would improve the corruption within the course of. No embassy, notably in Nigeria, would let you know that there’s no corruption in visa issuance. There’s big corruption. So Nigerians pay quite a bit, and with this new coverage, we most likely should pay extra”. Excerpts:

What affect do you foresee the brand new single-entry visa coverage having on Nigerian vacationers and companies with frequent US visits?
Naturally, the coverage goes to have numerous affect, and it’s going to create disruption, notably for enterprise people who find themselves all the time on the transfer. When you think about the tedious strategy of making use of for and getting a US visa, you’ll be able to apply this month, and they’ll let you know that the interview is subsequent 12 months. So in case you have an pressing assembly in Washington, United States, it merely means that you would be able to’t go. Because of this the event may be very unlucky. However by some means, it hurts either side.

But it surely hurts Nigeria greater than it hurts the US as a result of, very often, what number of Individuals come to Nigeria anyway? So Nigeria would bear the burden of this type of coverage. By way of value, it signifies that Nigerians must be paying a lot each three months to journey to the USA. Already learn how a lot Nigerians pay to get visas from these superior international locations. It’s so mind-boggling that these international locations would flip round to lecture us on capital flight by way of their visa insurance policies.

They’re, really. They’re really contributing to their capital flight each legally and illegally. The worst half is that this coverage would improve the corruption within the course of. No embassy, notably in Nigeria, would let you know that there’s no corruption in visa issuance.

There’s big corruption. So Nigerians pay quite a bit, and with this new coverage, we most likely should pay extra. I severely hope that efforts being made by Minister of Interior Olubumi Ojo and the Minister of Foreign Affairs are fruitful and that the US would take heed to our plea and return to the previous coverage.

How can the Nigerian authorities navigate the worldwide visa reciprocity course of to safe extra beneficial visa phrases with the US?
Now we have to be life like about points. On this recreation, Nigeria has no probability of profitable. The majority of people that go to Nigeria from the USA are Nigerians, or you can say Nigerian-Individuals. Some have discovered the way in which to avoid the ‘wahala’ by having Nigerian and American passports. However the reality is, for us to navigate, we have now to achieve an settlement with the USA as a result of extra Nigerians journey to the USA and extra Individuals are travelling to Nigeria.

90 per cent of Individuals that come to Nigeria are Nigerian-Individuals. Whereas in service, I had been urging Nigeria to construct a much more cordial relationship with the USA, however we faux to deceive ourselves by saying we have now a strategic relationship with the US. We by no means had any strategic relationship with them.

Are you able to evaluate Nigeria’s significance to the US to that of Egypt or Israel? No, you can’t. However constructing a much more cordial relationship makes extra sense than deceiving ourselves with being extra strategic. So the brand new coverage provides us a possibility to guage our relationship with the USA and start to see methods to construct it up. We shouldn’t have American investments in Nigeria when in comparison with South Africa, which had 6, 000 American corporations in South Africa. I don’t know what number of American corporations are in Nigeria. Worldwide funding shouldn’t be one-sided. Nigerians within the tech business and college students who need to go are actually to be constrained by this coverage, which is why each effort needs to be made to resolve the problem as shortly as attainable.

How can Nigerian residents alter their journey plans to mitigate the consequences of the brand new visa coverage?
The perfect adjustment we will make is to barter. I gathered there was an settlement on a US five-year visa however that our implementation was poor. Whereas the US started theirs instantly, it took us a while. I feel there’s extra to it.

Coming near it’s the BRICS assembly the place US President Donald Trump vowed to punish these doing enterprise with out utilizing the greenback. Additionally, as Individuals are altering their coverage, the UAE is doing the identical factor. So you start to ask your self if we’re not liable for all this. We have to discover out what our individuals are doing fallacious that’s warranting this staggering coverage.

What position do you suppose safety considerations play within the US’s resolution to implement this new visa coverage for Nigerian residents?
I don’t suppose safety considerations performed a job. What number of Individuals come to Nigeria in comparison with the Indians?

Might the coverage replace have an effect on Nigeria’s world popularity and relationships with different international locations?
Once I was serving in Atlanta a few years in the past, I mentioned to a governor within the northern states that it isn’t solely the misbehaviour of Nigerians that creates picture issues for Nigeria; government-owned errors and behavior create extra picture issues for Nigeria. I nonetheless preserve my place on that.

What we should always advocate is that the Nigerian authorities ought to, as a matter of urgency and as a matter of coverage, evaluate all its visa relationships with a variety of international locations.

The federal government ought to first talk about with these international locations, notably international locations like England, methods to scale back the price of visas. Have you ever ever accomplished analysis on how a lot Nigerians pay to get visas to a variety of these international locations?

Calculate it: if about 20,000 Nigerians get a visa from an embassy, how a lot would an embassy be making in a single 12 months? That’s how a lot Nigeria is shedding to those international locations by way of the visa evaluate. The visa evaluate of all of the international locations in Nigeria doesn’t favour Nigerians. The annoying factor is these international locations make some huge cash, each from the authorized ones Nigerians pay in addition to the unlawful ones by way of middlemen.

Are there potential alternatives for Nigeria to diversify its worldwide partnerships and scale back dependence on the US on account of this coverage change?
In worldwide relations, who’re your mates? Should you construct 4 blocks, who’re people who could be within the first block? Who’re people who could be within the second block? Who could be within the third block? Contemplating our economic system, the primary block could be crammed by the Asian international locations; there are over 200 Indian corporations in Nigeria. Japanese corporations are in Nigeria, Korean corporations are in Nigeria.

Now, what number of British corporations do we have now right this moment in Nigeria? Perhaps they supply companies; the place do you place the Individuals? On the flipside, what’s Nigeria itself doing by way of manufacturing? What precisely are we exporting to those international locations that will make us strategic companions by way of commerce past oil? Is it sufficient to make us strategic companions by way of commerce? It’s after we change into extra productive that our foreign money is strengthened…in any other case all these we’re doing are cosmetics.

In different phrases, we will strengthen our foreign money by way of manufacturing and our exports, not imports.

It’s what makes China so wealthy right this moment. The majority of the taxes President Trump ordered had been in opposition to Asian international locations. It’s as a result of they export numerous items to the USA. They’re the US’s largest buying and selling companions, however Nigeria doesn’t have that type of benefit. The underside line is manufacturing on all fronts.