UAE Has Not Resumed Visa Issuance To Nigerians — Presidency Clarifies

Nigerians' ability to enter the UAE without a visa has not been removed, Onanuga explains

According to the presidency, Nigerians are still required to have a valid visa to enter the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

President Bola Tinubu's special advisor on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, revealed this on Tuesday.

Onanuga clarified in a statement posted on his X account that the document announcing the lifting of the restriction was not approved by the governments of the United Arab Emirates or Nigeria.

“UAE has not resumed visa issuance to Nigerians. The document in circulation is not authorized either by the Nigerian government or the UAE,” Onanuga said.

Following a document he had previously shared on X, Onanuga made his statement. It stated that the UAE had removed the ban on Nigerians applying for visas, two years after a diplomatic spat.

Since 2021, there has been a diplomatic spat between the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria regarding flight schedules and travel restrictions.

Citing an increase in COVID-19 cases from travelers from Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UAE imposed travel restrictions on these passengers on December 13, 2021.

The travel ban may not be unrelated to the diplomatic dispute between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates regarding Air Peace's frequency of flights to the Arab nation.

The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the United Arab Emirates only approved one of Air Peace's three weekly flight requests from Nigeria to Sharjah Airport.

Air Peace, a Nigerian airline, refuted the GCAA's assertion that it should not anticipate maintaining its flight frequency following its departure from Sharjah Airport.

Air Peace, a Dubai-based airline, halted all of its flights to Nigeria after the federal government reduced Emirate's slots from 21 to one in retaliation for the airline's treatment in the UAE.

However, on September 15, of last year, an official from the Arab nation stated that the restriction was still in effect. In the meantime, on September 11, 2023, the federal government announced that the United Arab Emirates had lifted its ban on visas for Nigerian travelers.