Nigeria lowers visa fees for Americans after US visa hike

It’s taken just a day for the Nigerian government to respond to the Trump administration’s latest visa clampdown measure on Nigerians.

It has reduced visa fees for Americans traveling to Nigeria from $180 to $150 in response to the US embassy’s introduction of a “reciprocity fee” for Nigerians. The US embassy claims the new reciprocity fee, ranging from $80 to $303 and only to be paid for approved visas, has been introduced to “eliminate that cost difference” between visa application fees for both countries.

The move was in line with a Trump executive order in 2017 for the US secretary of State to, among other things, adjust fee schedules “to match the treatment of United States nationals” by other countries. The US embassy claimed it has been in talks with Nigerian authorities for 18 months to align visa fees.

For its part, Nigeria’s government says the decision to lower visa fees for American applicants was taken months ago but was not implemented given the transition in government. (Nigeria’s president Buhari only inaugurated a new cabinet last week after winning reelection for a second term in February).

It’s unclear if the new visa fee reduction for American applicants to Nigeria will also see the US Embassy revise its reciprocity fee structure for Nigerians.

Some international business people and tourists from countries including the United States have long complained about the high expense of Nigerian visas and the difficulty of obtaining them. The Buhari government has targeted improving this with programs including visa-on-arrival for business people and potential investors. Yet, Nigerians also face challenges with the US visa application process, which is renown for its intensive paperwork (even for short stay visas) and involves daunting consular interview sessions that often end in vague reasons for application rejections.

The quick reaction from Nigerian authorities is a change of tack from earlier measures by the Trump administration to clamp on Nigerian visa applications. In May, the US suspended a visa waiver program for Nigerian applicants and has reportedly considered issuing visas for shorter validity periods in response to the high rates of Nigerian nationals overstaying visas.

By Yomi Kazeem


Quartz

MTN Nigeria starts mobile money transfer service

Nigeria’s biggest telecoms firm MTN has launched a mobile money transfer service, targeting those without bank accounts, and said on Thursday it plans to become a payment services bank once it obtains approval from the central bank.

The success in east Africa of M-Pesa, the mobile money unit of Kenya’s Safaricom, has convinced investors and the industry that financial services are the next growth area for the telecoms sector, where prices for basic services are falling.

Nigeria said last year it would allow telecom companies to provide banking services, aiming to give millions of Nigerians without bank accounts access to mobile money services.

MTN Nigeria was awarded a licence by Nigeria’s central bank in July to provide financial services.

Majority owned by South Africa’s MTN Group, the company runs Nigeria’s biggest mobile phone network serving around 56 million people.

MTN Nigeria’s CEO Ferdi Moolman said its Yello Digital Financial Services Limited (YDFS) unit would extend access to simple money transfer services and other financial services.

More than half of Nigeria’s population of 180 million do not have a bank account.

Shares in MTN Nigeria, which was listed on the local bourse in May, fell 1.49% to 144.50 naira on Thursday, valuing the telecoms firm at 2.95 trillion naira ($9.64 billion).

MTN Group appointed Rob Shuter as chief executive in 2016 to oversee the formulation of a new strategic growth plan and look for new revenue streams as competition and regulation hit profit margins.

Shuter, who has previous banking experience, has been revamping Africa’s biggest telecoms group, seeking returns in everything from financial services to music and video games.

By Chijioke Ohuocha

Reuters

Nigeria want England-born striker Josh Maja to join Super Eagles

 Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr says he is keen on having England-born striker Josh Maja play for the Super Eagles next month.

Maja, born in London to Nigerian parents, scored 16 goals in 30 appearances for Sunderland last season before switching to French club Bordeaux in January.

Uncapped by England at any level, Maja has scored twice in 10 appearances in Ligue 1 for Bordeaux.

"I ate with Samuel Kalu and Josh Maja, who is a second Nigerian in Bordeaux and is eligible for Nigeria. I already started talking with him about the national team," Rohr told Le Point G in France.

"He can easily play in the friendly matches (for Nigeria), but he can only do it because he has not played for the under-20's."

Rohr was referring to the fact that Nigeria will not have to apply to Fifa for a change of allegiance for Maja, as the youngster has not played for another nation at youth level.

The 20-year-old's performances in France have caught the eye of Rohr, who played played at Bordeaux then coached them when they lost to Bayern Munich in the 1996 Uefa Cup final.

Rohr has already named a 23-man squad for the friendly against Ukraine next month, but the German is hoping to persuade Maja to play in the game which serves as a build-up to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying which starts in November.

"We have a game in Ukraine, and I've been informed that it might be too late to get visas for players who do not have a European passport," said Rohr.

"But he [Maja] does not have this issue because he is English, so he could eventually join us. It is very possible that I pick him to go to Ukraine.

"For Maja, it would be easier to have him. I have a lot of attackers, but it's not impossible that I select him."

Nigeria have previously succeeded in convincing former England-born players like Sone Aluko and Ola Aina to represent the West African nation.

They have also snapped up London-born Joe Aribo, who plays for Scottish giants Rangers, with the midfielder set to make his debut against Ukraine in Dnipro.

His teammate and Liverpool's loanee Sheyi Ojo also told the BBC that he would love to represent Nigeria if they approach him.

By Oluwashina Okeleji

BBC 

China invests $16 billion in oil sector in Nigeria

Chinese investment in Nigeria's oil and gas industry has reached $16 billion, according to Nigeria's state-run oil company. While Nigeria's oil industry welcomes China's interest, analysts worry about a lack of transparency in the sector and slow development of the country's renewable energy market.

When a top official with China's third-largest national oil company paid a visit to Abuja, Nigeria this month, he was recommended by a top official of Nigeria's state-run oil company to increase investment in Nigeria's petroleum industry.

Mele Kyari, the managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, or NNPC, thanked the China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, for its continued support of Nigeria's oil and gas sector. Chinese investments in the sector have reached $16 billion. Kyari added that Nigeria needs partners like China.

The two countries need each other to reach their oil production targets. Africa's largest oil producing nation pumps 2 million barrels a day and has a goal of producing 3 million barrels a day by 2023. China's domestic oil production has been on a steady decline because of natural depletion and other geological challenges. So experts predict that up to 80 percent of China's crude oil supply will be imported by 2030.

In comes Nigeria

CNOOC started doing business in Nigeria in 2005 and is the largest Chinese entity investor in Nigeria. With a focus on overseas investment, it's also China's largest offshore oil and natural gas developer.

The company's executive vice president, Lu Yan Ji, said during the meeting that Nigeria is one of the company's largest investment destinations. He also said that CNOOC is producing 800,000 barrels per day, but it wants to reach 1.2 million. Ji hopes Nigeria can help with that.

But there's skepticism

Nigeria has had a hard time reaching its production targets. There's sporadic militancy in the oil-producing region, as young people often take violent action to demand more access to the country's oil wealth. There's theft happening right at the pipelines. Fires often burn at rusted pipes, and oil operations in Nigeria are disrupted several times a year.

Also there's a serious lack of transparency. The NNPC has a long history of scandals, with ongoing accusations of corruption.

Crude oil is Nigeria's most lucrative export, and the NNPC has not been able to account for billions of dollars in revenue. President Muhammadu Buhari has not appointed anyone as the oil minister. He handles that highly sought after portfolio himself in his second term as president, just as he did in his first.

Corruption is also why some Nigerians aren't applauding China for pouring money into Nigeria's murky oil industry.

A host on Nigeria's popular Wazobia TV network, Uvbi Ehigiamusoe, put it this way.

She says the Chinese oil company will not monitor how Nigeria will use $16 billion in investments. And it is known how it goes in Nigeria, she says.

Some say it's high time Nigeria moves away from its dependence on oil. Revenue from the oil industry accounts for almost 75 percent of the federal budget, according to the Nigerian financial watchdog group BudgIT.

Dr. Nwoke Okala, an energy specialist at the Center for Research and Development at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, says Nigeria should follow the global trend of exploring renewable energy sources as oil becomes less attractive.

But for now, Nigeria will continue to set its ambitions on oil. Nigerian business mogul and the richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote, is building what will be Africa's largest oil refinery in the Nigerian commercial city of Lagos.

With an expected annual refining capacity of 10.4 million tons of gasoline, the new refinery will double Nigeria's refining capacity and help in meeting the increasing domestic demand for fuel.

The $9 billion mega-complex is expected to be complete at the end of 2020 and could take Nigeria from a fuel importer to a fuel exporter.


By Chika Oduah

VOA

Video - Nigeria locking up survivors of human trafficking

Despite attempts by the Nigerian government to combat human trafficking and provide support for those that survived being trafficked, care for victims is still severely lacking, a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

According to the report, the Nigerian government is illegally detaining survivors of human trafficking, prohibiting the often traumatised women from recovering from the experiences they went through.

"The Nigerian authorities are actually detaining trafficking survivors in shelters, not allowing them to leave at will, in violation of Nigeria’s international legal obligations," the New York-based rights body said.

"The detentions overwhelmingly affect women and girls, and put their recovery and well-being at risk."

The report is based on interviews with 76 survivors, 20 of them girls between the ages 8 and 17, who either were trafficked out of Nigeria and later returned, or were trafficked into Nigeria.

They were often promised well-paying jobs as domestic workers, hairdressers, or hotel staff but were then tricked and trapped in exploitation and forced to pay back a huge "debt" for their travel.

Often, the people who trafficked them were people they knew personally.

"My aunt brought me here. She said she will help me. When I got here, she said I had to work before the apprenticeship," one of the survivors told HRW.

"She took me somewhere to work as a house girl…. I was mistreated. She did not give me food; I washed cars, cleaned the house and the compound," the 14-year-old, who is one of several victims quoted in the report, said.

"My aunt used to collect the money. Their kids were too hostile to me. I decided to leave."

'Closed shelters'

Over the last couple of years, the Nigerian government has introduced several anti-trafficking laws and started the the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), which runs shelters for trafficking survivors.

However, those shelters are severely lacking, HRW said.

"Some survivors in the NAPTIP shelters complained about not being able to receive visitors or contact their families, not having clear information about when they would reunite with their families, monotonous daily schedules, or boredom from doing nothing," the report states.

"Those referred by NAPTIP to private shelters were unhappy about poor conditions and services, including inadequate food, lack of soap or body lotion, lack of medical and psychosocial care, and lack of job training," it added.

The women often suffer from depression, anxiety, insomnia, flashbacks, aches and pains, and other physical ailments as a result of their ordeal.

Despite attempts by the Nigerian government to help them reintegrate, the so-called "closed shelters" do not provide enough support for the women to reintegrate into Nigerian society, HRW said.

"Women and girls trafficked in and outside Nigeria have suffered unspeakable abuses at the hands of traffickers, but have received inadequate medical, counseling, and financial support to reintegrate into society" senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch Agnes Odhiambo said.

"We were shocked to find traumatised survivors locked behind gates, unable to communicate with their families, for months on end, in government-run facilities." 


HRW has called on Nigeria to better listen to the experiences of survivors and offer more room for community services, health workers and other organisations to play in a role in the recovery of the women.

"Nigerian authorities are struggling with a crisis of trafficking, and working under challenging circumstances, but they can do a better job by listening to what survivors have to say about their own needs," Odhiambo said.

"To end trafficking and break cycles of exploitation and suffering, survivors need the government to help them heal from the trauma of trafficking and earn a decent living in Nigeria."

Al Jazeera

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