Breaking: After two years, UAE resumes visa issuance to Nigerians

Breaking: After two years, UAE resumes visa issuance to Nigerians 

Nigerians who could not travel to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for about two years due to diplomatic row and flight suspension can now heave a sigh of relief.

The Federal Government on Monday announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had lifted the visa restriction on Nigerian travellers, starting from July 15, 2024.

Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

The announcement came more than two years after the UAE suspended visa issuance to Nigerians following the protracted diplomatic row with Nigeria.

It also came about two months after UAE national carrier Emirates Airlines announced the resumption of flights to Nigeria.

The airline said in May that its daily Lagos-Dubai flights would resume from October 1, 2024.

Emirates Airlines suspended its Dubai-Lagos flights in 2022 over its inability to repatriate trapped funds in Nigeria in the heat of the diplomatic fireworks between the two countries.

Nigeria and the UAE have a long history of restriction of flights between both countries based on certain unresolved issues surrounding the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA). Visa restrictions later surfaced as diplomatic fireworks continued between Nigeria and the UAE, which is a top destination for Nigerian migrants and tourists.

In September 2023, President Bola Tinubu met with UAE President, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi, to smoothen the rough edges in the diplomatic relations between the two countries.