Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the interior minister, claims that last Detty December made the administration realise how important it is to open up Nigeria more to tourists.
In Nigeria, the term “Detty December” describes the festive season that ends at the end of the year, usually from mid-December to the New Year.
The country’s economy benefitted from the surge of tourists who arrived in December of last year.
Speaking on a television show Thursday, Tunji-Ojo stated that the Federal Government has now made it a priority to
make it easier for foreigners to enter the nation in order to draw in more foreign direct investment.
Tunji-Ojo said, “We must make it easy for legitimate people to come in and explore the beauty of our land. We must
open Nigeria up for business, and that is what Mr President is doing: working so hard every day to make sure he
increases foreign direct investment to make sure that people come to Nigeria, and we are seeing the results.
“Last December, we called it Detty December; we saw the highest number of people coming into Nigeria, coming for
New Year. It was great. That alone shows us that we need to open up our space.”
The minister claims that the implementation of the e-visa is one step taken to accomplish this goal. According to him,
the e-visa is not a replacement for the visa-on-arrival but rather an enhancement of it.
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According to the minister, the e-visa was created in order to remove a number of obstacles associated with the visa-
on-arrival procedure.
“Visa-on-arrival as it is today is a form of e-visa. The only difference is that when you apply online, it goes to the CG’s
office; it is only the CG’s office that approves visa-on-arrival,” he said.
“Once approved, they send you a notice that it is approved; you take that notice, and when you get to Nigeria, you go
through the pain of going to what we call the visa-on-arrival counter, where they will now take vignette and stick it to
your passport.
“We are saying there is no need for that. So, the visa-on-arrival process has only been optimised in such a way that
you apply online. Once you apply online, you get your decision to come, you don’t need a vignette, you get approval with a QR code.”
He said that other developed nations like the UAE, Australia, and Qatar, among others, do it precisely that way.
