By Chinelo Obogo
Streamlined immigration procedures have led to a surge in the issuance of South African visas to Nigerians in the past one year, the Consul General of South Africa to Nigeria, Prof. Bobby Moroe revealed yesterday.
At the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce July Breakfast Meeting held in Lagos yesterday and sponsored by South African Airways, Moroe, said that following a stakeholder forum in January 2023, the South African immigration process has undergone significant improvements with the drastic reduction of turnaround time as applications are now processed within seven to eight days compared to when delays spanned several months.
Speaking on the topic, ‘Diplomatic Relations Between South Africa and Nigeria –Prospects and Challenges’, Moroe said the South African government has issued an unprecedented number of multiple entry visas to Nigerians with longer validity periods for up to five years and that the simplified processes now cater to group applications.
“We had an immigration forum on January 9, 2023 where we brought all the relevant stakeholders together. People spoke and we listened. So for the past year, we started working on certain mechanisms that would make it easy for people to receive their visas. First, our turnaround has been cut short. You may recall that people used to complain that they were keeping their visas for too long but we have reduced that.
“Our turnaround time now does not exceed seven to eight days. If you are traveling to any part of the world, you are no longer constrained, you can use your data page, certify it, put it into your documents and travel to wherever you want and when your visa is ready, we send you an SMS to inform you. We now give multiple entry visas for up to five years. We also give visas to groups and there are still ongoing changes going on. The number of visas we issued Nigerians have doubled in the past year because of this.
“We have issued a record number of multiple entry business visas in the past six months with a maximum of two to five years duration, something that has never happened in the past. In order to enhance our services and improve the visa application experience, a special dispensation has been introduced for applicants, providing them with express services. In the past, when applying for a South African visa, you had to physically present your passport or your application would be declined,” he explained.
On the trade volume between Nigeria and South Africa, Moroe said: “According to the 2022 statistics, the trade volume between Nigeria and South Africa is tilted in favour of Nigeria which is about $72.1 billion for Nigeria and $447m for South Africa. What counts for Nigeria are products like rubber, petroleum, gas and crude oil. But for South Africa, what accounts for the $447m are magnetic rubber stoppers which are used by industries for protective water spillages. There is also the exportation of pears and apples which accounts for $3.2 million.”
In her closing remarks, the country manager of South African Airways, Kemi Leke-Bamtefa, lauded the South African government for streamlining and simplifying the visa process and revealed that from October, the airline would increase its frequency from Nigeria to Johannesburg from three to five times weekly. She also said passengers are entitled to up to 20 percent discount to any destination of their choice.