simplyolat The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey
Onyeama, says plans have been concluded to sign
visa-free pacts with a bloc of eight African
countries to promote economic partnership on the
continent.
Onyeama announced this in Abuja on Tuesday at a
news confernce to mark one year of President
Mohammadu Buhari’s Administration.
The minister, who did not disclose the names of
the countries making up the bloc, noted with
concern that trading among African countries had
been very low.
He, however, said that with the new idea by the
President Mohammadu Buhari led administration,
“it is expected that there will be upsurge in
economic activities.
“ Africa is the centrepiece of our foreign policy but
it is a paradox that as a Nigerian, you cannot go to
an African country without a visa unlike what is
obtainable in Western Europe.
“To address this as a leader in the continent, the
country is at a point of introducing an initiative to
promote African trade as part of the country’s
foreign policy of Africa as the centrepiece”, he
said.
Onyeama said Nigeria was trying to come up with
an initiative, like the one in Western Europe where
one could enter any sister country without a visa.
According to him, what we are trying to do at the
ministry is to promote visa-free, free movement of
business people.
“We want to start with about eight countries or see
if they come up as a group of eight countries. At
the presidential level, they agreed to that, and
signed up to free movement.
“If we can achieve that within a year, then other
countries may want to join and we believe this is a
better way to go than institutional ECOWAS etc, as
countries take so long to ratify agreements.
“We believe we can just start off, eight countries
and they agree among themselves, then others will
come in,” he said.
Onyeama also added that it would not help if the
continent continued to export just raw materials to
developed nations.
He said the Ministry of Industry, Trade and
Investment was working towards enhancing doing
business with ease in Nigeria.
Onyeama said the ministry was working with the
immigration to see rise in the number of visa
issued to businessmen and investors
“It is one of the cardinal strategies for the Ministry
of Industry, Trade and Investment to facilitate
investors doing business in Nigeria”, he said.
Onyeama said the Ministry of Industry, Trade and
Investment had been mandated to ensure that
there was reduction in the time it took to register
companies.