The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs has unveiled Asfaar, Nigeria’s first visa application centre, aimed at processing travel requests and tackling document fraud.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, said Asfaar is crucial to safeguarding Nigeria’s sovereignty in its dealings with other countries.
Tuggar, represented by Alkasim Abdulkadir, his special assistant on media and communications strategy, spoke in Abuja on Tuesday during the press launch and media tour of the visa processing facility.
A number of visa service providing agencies operating in Nigeria, including French-owned TLScontact and VFS Global have their headquarters in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“Before now, one of the major issues that countries have with Nigeria is the sanctity and integrity of its data,” the minister said.
“So what they usually say is that ‘We’re not sure whether its your country, people have fake passports, people are traveling on data of other countries to come to our countries’. These are some of the issues that Nigeria has been facing in the past.
“However, in the last two years, there has been a process to tidy up the data that is coming out of Nigeria.
So, this includes collaboration with ONSA, collaboration with NIMC, collaboration with the ministry of foreign affairs to ensure that the data—the passport and other documents of agencies—are tidied up and have the integral value for it to travel.
“What has now happened is that Asfaar came at the right time, where it is using its processes to ensure a further verification of the data that is provided.”
Jamil Hausawi, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Asfaar, said the agency was created to ease the increasing visa restrictions and challenges faced by Nigerians travelling abroad.
Hausawi noted that while visa approvals remain the responsibility of embassies, applicants using Asfaar will have relevant government agencies step in as intermediaries if issues arise.
He said Asfaar will be launched in three phases, noting that the first phase will cover the Arab and Gulf states, which attract a high traffic of Nigerian travellers — many of whom visit multiple times yearly for hajj and umrah — but where visa restrictions in recent years have posed major challenges.
He added that the second phase will extend to Asia and Australia, while the third phase will span Europe and the US but noted that the rollout would be “gradual”.
Nelson Obiabo, Asfaar spokesperson, noted that the agency has only begun skeletal services with full operation to commence as soon as integration with embassies and consulates is finalised.