LCCI advises Nigeria on visa liberalisation

In order to attract more foreign investors, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has advised the Federal Government to further liberalise Nigeria’s visa policy.
The President of LCCI, Mr Babatunde Ruwase, gave the advice in Lagos at a news conference aimed at setting an agenda for President Muhammadu Buhari, who won the Feb.23 Presidential election that earned him a second term of office.
“We propose that our visa policy regime should be more liberal. We should grant nationals of selected advanced economies visa-free entry to Nigeria for a maximum of 30 days.
“This is the practice in many of the emerging economies, which have benefited tremendously from this policy. This will impact positively on our Foreign Direct Investment, particularly the hospitality and tourism industry,” he said.
Ruwase also called for the establishment of a Lagos office for the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) to create a one-stop shop for business men and women willing to do business in the country.
“The interface of the NIPC is frequent and critical to achieving the objective of promoting investment and creating jobs. We urge the government to intervene in correcting this unusual situation.
Ruwase urged the government to initiate policies and programmes that would accelerate the country’s economic growth and ensure that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate surpassed its population development rate.
“The full-year GDP growth was 1.9 per cent; better than 2017 of 0.8 per cent. This performance is still weak and fragile. It is also far below 3 per cent annual population growth.
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