South Africa has introduced a five-year multiple entry visa for business people as part of the ways to encourage travel from South Africa to Nigeria and back.

This was disclosed by Bobby Moroe, Consul-General of South Africa to Nigeria on Thursday during the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce July Breakfast Meeting 2024 sponsored by South African Airways.

More who described the visa as a ‘special provision’ for business travellers, said, “We now have a five-year multiple entry visa for business people. If I was at liberty to mention people’s names, I would do that. This includes tourist visas. Our turnaround period has been cut short. We are now also able to invite you for a briefing if you will be travelling to South Africa in groups.

“As groups, we set up appointments on your behalf with VFS, you give us a date and submit a list, to make a request for VFS to allow you to submit with your group. Those are the interventions that we have made. This is an on-going mandate we have given to ourselves for us to be able to respond to the challenges that have been raised to us.”

The consul-general said visa processes have simplified for Nigerians since it held an immigration forum last year and heard the visa challenges from stakeholders.

He hinted that for the past year, the consulate has been working on mechanisms that would make it easier for people to receive their visas.

“Firstly, our turnaround has been cut short. In the past, people complained that we were keeping their passports for too long. Our turnaround time now is a maximum of seven to eight days.

“But you also have an option. If you’ll be travelling to the UK or any part of the world and you also want to apply for a visa, you are no longer constrained. You can use your data page, certify it, put it into the package of application, submit that application and then off you go to the UK once your visa is ready, we send you an SMS.

“You might be sitting somewhere in the U.K or Dubai and we will send you a message that your visa is ready, when you return back home, you’ll get your visa,” Moroe explained.

He said If people are travelling to Zimbabwe and Namibia via South Africa, the Consulate can assist them with passage via South Africa.

“When it comes to South African nationals, they do not necessarily require visas to certain regions. The same way for West Africa nationals, you use your ECOWAS passport but you must be in that particular country for a period not exceeding 90 days,” he added.

Speaking on the trade volume between Nigeria and South Africa, he said that according to 2022 statistics, the trade volume is in favour of Nigeria which is about $72.1 billion than with South Africa that is $447 million.

“What accounts for that $72.1 billion are products such as rubber, petroleum as well as crude oil.

“But you also have the exportation of pears and apples which accounts for $43.2 million. That’s why we say the consumption of apples and pears in Nigeria is very high.

“Considering the population of Nigeria and South Africa, it makes sense that the trade balance is in your favour but I think more can be done especially at increasing the number of Nigerian companies in South Africa,” he added.

Kemi Leke-Bamtefa, Country Manager of South Africa Airways said the airline would Increase frequency out of Lagos from three weekly flights to five weekly flights, effective late October 2024

Leke-Bamtefa said the airline also launched two new destinations to Perth in Australia and Sao Paulo in Brazil.

She assured that SAA is a network airline and can connect travellers to various destinations in Southern Africa. (BusinessDay)

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