2020: All Africans can come to Nigeria without visa — Babandede

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) says the Federal Government have approved that all Africans could come to Nigeria without Visa from January 2020.

The Comptroller General, NIS, Mr Muhammad Babandede, disclosed this at the inauguration of the Africa–Frontex Intelligence Community (AFIC) on Wednesday in Abuja.

European border and Coast guard Agency also known as Frontex is an agency of European Union (EU) tasked with border control of the European Schengen Area, in coordination with border and coast guard of Schengen area member states.

“The announcement would be made soon by the President of the Federation.
”But we cannot succeed without a tool like AFIC. This tool is keen if we want to implement an effective free movement across our border.

“The tool is actually coming at the right time. AFIC would help African countries especially Nigeria that want to open its border for all Africans to enter at will. And now that tool is available, it would make the work easier for us,” he said.

Babandede said that it was important to acknowledge the different forces in Nigeria curbing crime and insecurity.
“But our duty is unique and you may not see it as it is in Chad, Benin or Cameroon.

“The essence is that we are very keen and we have been working with EU for a long time. Frontex is in charge of border before they got another responsibility called coast guard which is also very keen to Africa especially checking member state of ECOWAS,” he said.

The CGI commended the EU and Frontex delegates for establishing the risk analysis centre, adding that analysis could not be done physically without analytical system.

“I was opportune to be at the Frontex headquarters, and I came with useful tools which are for border and control centre.
”This has brought about the building of border and control centre which will be inaugurated next year. So the analytical system from Frontex, border control system and even mobility would all be in one place,” he said.