Visa racketeers siphon N3.6bn from Nigeria

United States NonImmigrant Consular Chief, Suzane Grantham and Consular Chief, Carl Cockburn

VISA processing and issuance procedures have become a major source of capital flight as Nigeria loses N3.6 billion through a web of criminal conspiracy between officials of government, embassy staff and consular officers of some embassies on one hand; desperate intending travellers and agents, their agents and proxies, making the West African country the most lucrative consular operating centre in the world.

Vanguard can reveal that despite outsourcing their visa issuance procedures in Nigeria, to VFS Global, major destination countries, namely the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, China, India are making fruitful business as they capitalize on the desperation of Nigerians wanting to emigrate and government officials who also collude with consular officials to profit from the racketeering.
Response to media enquiries
No fewer than 100,000 persons applied for the U.S Non Immigrant Visa for which sources said 50 per cent were successful. US Consular officers of these embassies would not respond to media enquiries on their visa operations in Nigeria especially on the stringent measures introduced after the Abdulmutallab episode.
Most Nigerians are not aware of these measures and have not been properly educated. US consular officials do not even have the patience to go through the documents presented by the applicants before denying their request. The situation is not different from the British Visa operations where over 900,000 Nigerians applied for visiting visa to the UK.
Investigations reveal that Nigeria loses over N1.2billion annually through the non refundable visa application fee paid by private individuals whose visa applications are rejected annually by officials of embassies and high commission, who do not look at the documents and information provided by the applicant. Another N2.4billion is lost through the endless travel programme of public officers in ministries, agencies and departments.
Sources told Vanguard that over 3,500 Visa applications are rejected every day which translates to about 70,000 rejections every month. When you multiply the amount of money lost through the non refundable visa application fee, you will see that Nigeria is the biggest visa market in the world. Said a source: “In a year, we estimate that Nigeria loses about N1.2 billion from the non refundable visa fees paid by private individuals who are denied visas by embassy officials who reject applications on face value of their applications.
Source: VANGUARD
3,500 applications rejected in a day, wait oh is it by force to travel? People are just too desperate to leave this country and in most cases, what they go there to do are odd jobs...Anyway I dn't blame them, the standard of living in this country is 'pathetic', honestly.