Ethiopia scraps visa on arrival for Nigerians

The Ethiopian government has scrapped visas-on-arrival for Nigerians with immediate effect.

In a statement on Tuesday, the government said travellers would need to obtain their visas at its embassy in Abuja before embarking on any trip to the country.

The development comes barely two weeks after Ethiopian Airlines emerged as the core investor in Nigeria Air — the country’s national carrier — with 49 percent shareholding.

“Please, be informed that effective immediately, no more visas on arrival for Nigerian citizens,” the email reads in part.

The embassy did not say what prompted the decision to cancel visa-on-arrival for the Nigerians.

It, however, said the new policy did not affect passengers transiting overnight in Addis Ababa.

“Passengers having a layover in Addis to travel the next morning to Zanzibar, Seychelles, Lusaka, Lilongwe, Harare, Cape Town, etc., are not affected by the ban and do not need a transit visa for their trips,” it added.

Ethiopia also mandated Nigerians entering its country and 42 other African countries to produce their yellow fever vaccination cards at any of its borders.

The ccountries include Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritania and Niger.

Others are Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, South Sudan, Uganda, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

Speaking on the development, Senait Ataklet, Ethiopian Airlines’ traffic and sales manager, said the Ethiopian government did not ban Nigerians from entering but only introduced an online visa application.

Ataklet said with the new policy, Nigerians will now be required to fill a visa-on-arrival requisition form prior to departure.

“The information I have it’s not a ban on arrival visa, but you know just like a Nigerian requesting, they need an online form to be filled out prior to departure for an on-arrival visa. Even though it’s on arrival visa, you need to fill an online form,” Ataklet told TheCable.

“So, it’s not banned. Before anybody can just go without applying, but when Ethiopians come to Nigeria, they need to fill out the online form on arrival. That’s the agreement, basically, that’s what they telling me now. They (Nigerians) need to fill a form an online visa-on-arrival requisition form.”