Lagos (Punch) – The Nigeria Immigration Service has increased visa issuing centres and counters from one to two at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
A source, who craved anonymity, said the immigration authorities in Abuja ordered the Lagos airport command to increase the counters to two in order to facilitate foreigners’ movement into the country and end the usual long queues for immigration processes.
It was gathered that visas were now being issued to foreigners on arrival at both the E and D wings of the airport instead of only the D wing, while no fewer than 20,000 visas had been issued at the airport since the policy came on stream in June this year.
“The issuance of visas on arrival has reduced the number of foreigners going to the home offices of Nigeria abroad, as many of them now prefer to get their visas on arrival at the command,” the source stated.
He added that as part of the monitoring scheme, the Lagos command had also tagged the counters of all its personnel at the airport for proper identification.
According to the source, the Comptroller General of Immigration, Mr. Muhammad Babandede, has ordered all the officers to tag their counters in order to check corruption in the system and also key into the ease of doing business policy of the Federal Government.
