Investors May Get Visas At Point Of Entry

President Goodluck Jonathan said in Abuja on Thursday that he had directed the Ministry of Interior to ensure that investors coming into the country got visas at the point of entry.

Jonathan made this known at the 17th National Economic Summit organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG).

“In terms of even our visa policies, I have directed all the ministries to be very creative; to be very innovative.

“For example, the interior ministry, Ministry of Internal Affairs, I have insisted that if business people are coming into Nigeria for programmes and short investment drives and so on, they don’t need to go through the rigours of going from one office or the other to get visas.

“They should come up with policies that such people can get visas at the airport; come in and do their short meetings or do their surveys and go back.”

Jonathan said that chief executive officers of global organisations whose characters were not questionable did not need to pass through the rigours of visa issuance to carry out investment drives in Nigeria.

He challenged all ministries, departments and agencies to be creative and innovative and to adopt global best practices in what they did.

This, he said, would add value to governance; improve the economy and the image of the country.

The president noted that government would continue to work to strengthen economy, adding that positive perception of the international rating agencies should be a source of motivation.

He said the nation’s annual population growth rate of at 2.2 per cent remained a challenge for government to tackle as infrastructure must be provided to support the trend.

He said there were opportunities for investments in various sectors of the economy which must be explored to achieve the nation’s goals.

“We see opportunities for investment in power generation, transmission and distribution; we see opportunities in mining of non-oil minerals as well as processing of agricultural products to add value to our produce.

“We see opportunities for investment in the transport sector as well as tourism, health, education, aviation and fast moving consumer goods.”

The president commended the efforts of the organisers of the summit and assured that the recommendations would be effectively used by government.

Jonathan said the summit had contributed to bringing solution to issues critical to development in the country.

He urged participants to make meaningful contributions that would help government to achieve its goals in ensuring that the nation’s economy was duly transformed.

In an address of welcome earlier, Mr. Frank Nweke Jnr., Director-General NESG, noted that security challenges were not peculiar to Nigeria adding that the challenges should not stop Nigeria from selling its potentials to the world.

“If we don’t tell our story, nobody is going to tell our story for us; we must show the kind of leadership that the president has shown by being here to tell our story to the world,” he said

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the summit with the theme: “Attracting Foreign Direct Investment through Global partnership” witnessed a large turnout of participants from outside the country.