₦airaland Forum

Travelling abroad for tourism has become increasingly difficult for Nigerians due to stricter visa requirements imposed by various countries.

Whilst not being specific on why stringent e-visa requirements are put in place, such measures, no doubt have caused several Nigerians loss of income and opportunities and valuable time.

One country that is presently in the eye of the storm for allegedly putting in place such measures, is Ethiopia.

Recently, its embassy faced accusations of defrauding Nigerian travellers by accepting payments for e-visas without issuing them or making refunds.The travellers accused the Ethiopian embassy of being “deceptive” for not informing them that online visa applications had been scrapped, yet applications on the embassy’s official website continued without any indication that Nigerians were no longer eligible for e-visas.

Sunday PUNCH learnt that after the visa application portal receives payment from visa applicants, it leaves them stranded, thus, defeating the purpose of the application.

Angered by the development, some of those affected spoke with Sunday PUNCH while others took to social media platforms to vent their frustration.
No notification was given by the embassy that it had stopped issuing e-visas to Nigerian passport holders.

Travellers’ ordeals

One of the affected victims, who preferred to be identified only as Adventures of Ijoba, while speaking with our correspondent, alleged that despite being debited several times for an application and reaching out to the visa support group, he had yet to receive a refund since February.

Sharing his experience with our correspondent, the budding travel blogger narrated how he spent $247 to apply for Ethiopian e-visas and was yet to receive it.

He said, “I’m a new travel vlogger and planned to visit Ethiopia and Tanzania earlier this year. According to the information provided on their official website and IATA guidelines, I tried to apply for an e-visa on their e-visa portal but was unable to pay for days.“I sent an email regarding the challenge with payment, and their support team, who responded to my query, told me to continue trying because everything was good from their end.

“I eventually got someone to use his UK debit card to pay for me. After multiple attempts, the payment eventually went through, and I was even debited twice for one application. I appealed for a refund for the erroneous debit on the platform but my emails were never responded to.”Continuing, the travel blogger said normally, the e-visa should take a few days or a couple of weeks at most to be issued, but he waited in vain.

Adventures of Ijoba said he paid $82 and another $164, which included the double debit, making a total of $246, adding that six months after that experience, he had yet to receive a refund, nor issued an e-visa.

He said, “When it was about two weeks to my departure date, I had to travel to the Ethiopian embassy in Abuja to complain. The Ethiopian embassy’s representative informed me that e-visas had been discontinued for Nigerians. I asked for a refund and was told that the platform is managed by a different department and they could not assist me with that.”

Like Adventures of Ijoba, a foremost tech expert, Victor Asemota, suffered a similar fate.

Using his handle, @asemota, on X.com, while narrating his torturous experience on July 25, he said he spent $82 while applying for an Ethiopian e-visa, but never got to receive it.

He wrote, “What is really the problem between Ethiopia and Nigeria? They just let me waste another $82 on a visa they knew they were not going to issue. This is fraudulent, and they should refund it.

“If you are not issuing visas to Nigerians, say it openly without fear instead of taking our money and doing nothing. This is a 419 scam by the whole country.”
Another handle, @jime_marvel, while sharing her experience on X.com, said, “They took my money last year and had zero communication.”

Also commenting on the development, another user, @folucomms, responded by saying, “Ethiopia won’t respond to you if you pay for a visa online as a Nigerian, and they don’t refund (I hope this changes soon). To get an ET, you need to go to their embassy.

“If you’re going for any official reasons, make sure you request a note verbale from those you’re going to meet with. With a note verbale, you can get a visa on arrival for about $200.”

This was also confirmed by several travel agents who spoke with Sunday PUNCH. They stated that Ethiopia visa applications must be done physically at the embassy in Abuja.
Ethiopian Visa Problem

In late September 2022, the Ethiopian embassy in Abuja imposed a new restriction on Nigerian travellers.

It announced that it was scrapping its visa-on-arrival policy for Nigeria and 41 other countries.
The Ethiopian embassy advised travellers to either procure their visa from the embassy in Abuja or apply for an e-visa through the country’s Immigration and Citizenship Service portal.

The spokesperson for the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Francisca Omayuli, in a statement, said, “Nigerians bearing standard passports intending to travel to Ethiopia are advised to obtain appropriate entry visas at the Ethiopian Embassy or an electronic visa through the country’s Immigration and Citizenship Service portal at www.evisa.gov.et.

“Also, those transiting through Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to other destinations or intending to briefly stop over would require a valid entry visa to access hotel facilities in the city or would be obligated to remain in the airport pending their connecting flight.”

Speaking on the development then, the Ethiopian Airlines’ traffic and sales manager, Senait Ataklet, clarified to an online platform, The Cable, that the new development was not a ban but a replacement of the visa-on-arrival policy with the online visa application.

The manager said, “The information I have is that it’s not a ban on arrival visas, but you know just like a Nigerian requesting, they need an online form to be filled out before departure for an on-arrival visa. Even though it’s an arrival visa, you need to fill out an online form.

“Before, anybody could just go without applying, but when Ethiopians come to Nigeria, they need to fill out the online form on arrival. That’s the agreement, that’s what they are telling me now. They need to fill out an online visa-on-arrival requisition form.”

Currently, the Nigerian passport is placed 92nd with access to 45 countries, either with e-visa access or visa on arrival, according to the Henley and Partners official passport index of August 2024.
While Ethiopia is still among the countries listed as e-visa applicable, the experience of Nigerians in recent times has been different.

Almost two years into the new visa policy, Nigerian travellers who used to seamlessly apply for e-visas and receive them have found that while their applications and payments go through, they are not issued visas.

Disturbing Discovery

Checks by our correspondent on the official application site of the Ethiopian embassy found no information alerting Nigerians to the fact that they can no longer apply for e-visas.

Before proceeding with the application, among the compulsory terms and conditions to be accepted was that all payments are non-refundable and are also handled by the Ethiopian Airlines Group.
Furthermore, the site indicated countries where it would not accept payment.

The terms and conditions stated that credit card payments originating from Cuba, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, North Korea, Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Crimea region of Ukraine, and the Syrian Arab Republic were not accepted, effective November 18, 2020.
Meanwhile, there was still no mention of Nigeria being exempted from this list.

An attempt by our correspondent to apply for a visa went through successfully without any hitch or notification to officially inform her of the unannounced e-visa application restriction on Nigerian passport holders.

Checks on the International Air Transport Association website, an international trade body representing some 240 airlines comprising 84 per cent of total air traffic, which provides accurate up-to-date information on international travel requirements and restrictions for countries, showed that visas could be obtained before departure on the official Ethiopian government website – https://www.evisa.gov.et/ and that travellers must have a printed visa approval before departure.

Sifting through the Ethiopian Embassy’s official Facebook handle, the X handle of the Ethiopian Embassy in Abuja and the @EthioEmbassyNG website, our correspondent observed that no notification was given for the recent restrictions for Nigerian travellers.

Furthermore, emails sent to the address listed on their Facebook handle on July 26 and 30, respectively, have not yet been replied to.

The same goes for the visa support email address to which another mail was sent.But this has not been the experience of Nigerian travellers, who bemoaned the silent treatment mete out to them by the embassy after payments were made, yet no visa was issued or refund made.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb Eche Abu-Obe, when contacted about the alleged fraudulent discovery linked to the Ethiopian embassy, via text message, said, “This has to be clarified from the Consular section first.”

We should have a system whereby defectors automatically lose their seats without anyone needing to go to court. This is really not healthy for our democracy at all

AchrafHakimi:
Aircrafts can run on one engine without issues

The captain must be another agbado-bred quota system graduate of Oluwole Institute of Aeronautical Engineering.

You should read well. Yes an aircraft can fly on one engine if there are no further hazards, but not when an engine is on fire 🔥. He made the right decision. If he had continued the journey with the fire already on, only ashes would have reached Abuja airport.

Please I need help. How can I cash out fiat converted from crypto into a bank account. I'm not talking about small amounts but huge amounts. And are there taxes on it? How can one avoid paying huge taxes on such crypto? I've heard people talk about using places like Switzerland, Malta, Serbia. Please anyone with experience can help out.

I hope all those Nigerians that were hailing Tinubu can now see why Macron desperately invited Nigerian delegation to France. It's not because he loves Nigeria. He has lost hold on French West and Central Africa, and it's now mumu Nigeria that has accepted a country that's being rejected by lesser nations. The French are desperate not to lose their hold on Africa, especially to nations like Russia and China so they quickly decided to forge an alliance with Nigeria. The outcast and scraps of lesser francophone African nations is what Nigeria and Nigerians are celebrating as achievement. It's such a huge disgrace and I'm ashamed of it all as a Nigerian especially at how we brought ourselves so low. These lower francophone nations will just be laughing at our stupidity and how Macron is making a fool out of Nigeria.

illicit:
Exactly

It's same for every gender

To date no be big problem, but to marry hard o

Marrying is also not difficult. It's marrying the right person that's actually difficult

I'd pretend I didn't read this nonsense post

Lol people don't even understand the underplay here. Macron and France have slowly lost their grip on francophone West Africa and their presence in Africa is gradually being eroded. They had been rejected by French West Africa and what next do you expect them to do in such an instance to avoid completely losing grip on West Africa to emerging power blocks and influencers in Africa like Russia and China? Of course the next thing they'd expectedly do is to go for easy picks like Nigeria. If you think Macron was doing all that because he loves Nigeria then you're of all earthly men naive. He knows we don't have an intelligent president who looks out for what his country can benefit from this, but a president who's easily star struck by such first world countries inviting him. Just watch how it plays out.

wiseone28:
so when we defeat Man City on Sunday you won't still be convinced?

Same man city that has been losing to half baked teams for the past 6 matches?

Oritna94:
Slot na coach abeg

Beating a half strength Madrid side devoid of Vini, Rodrigo, doesn't make him a good coach. Even teams like Tottenham would have scored up to 5 goals against this disastrous Madrid side by now. He's the same coach that met a mediocre arsenal side and drew. His wins have largely been against average teams. Until he plays in form teams like Barca and beats them, that's when I can call him a coach.

illicit:
That's the truth

I didn't even wanna have anything to do with her anymore from that moment...

She probably is the one that would never have wanted anything to do with you anymore because she'd probably be wondering in her mind how a guy could be so simpish to pay for everything she ordered for and even went ahead to pay for her tfare. Ladies hate guys without intelligence, without swag, without common sense. They sense it as weakness and weakness makes you a woman before them not a man. I'm sure she'd have been laughing in her mind and calling you a child or a woman as you deleted her number before her. She had gained everything and you lost. A lady would only value and respect you when she knows she had invested or lost something valuable and tangible because of you.

Okortor:
Only if most men can man up like this nigga , most bannies would learn the hard way...

Naso one undergraduate requested we meet, so I invited her over to my area which is on the island at lekki but she insisted i come to her side at ikeja but I declined stated she wanted meeting me so she should be coming over not the other way round. Eventually she came down, I told her we meet at a lounge or bar but she insisted eatery so clearly told her she would be footing her bills if that's her preference. Naso banny begin provoke. Lol. I kukuma blocked her after the meeting. No time for nonsense!

Did you eventually get to the eatery or bar before blocking her? Lol. If na eatery and you paid, then na she win even if you blocked her

This is stale news. Wasn't it Putin that addressed the Russian people and international media following the missile launch by Ukraine few days ago. I wonder where you guys get your outdated or false news from. The address by Putin is on YouTube. You can check it out there

It would only happen if Nigeria has the kinda free and transparent electoral process which America has. But with the current corrupt electoral process in Nigeria, the answer is a big NO. Tinubu is obviously winning a second term by a wide margin. Nigeria doesn't have a strong electoral institution in place yet.

Kennitrust:
please dear be very constructive in criticism.

I guess you have never fallen for a failed love that looks so real.

Someone has clearly told you that she doesn't love you and you're talking about fake love that looks so real? What kinda stupidity is this? I'm horrified by your SIMPlicity

ATEAMS:
High leverage

I don't get

legitnow:
YORUBA MAN WILL USE FEDARL POWER TO OPPRESS THE IGBOMAN.


THAT IS Y HE IS LOOKING FOR PRESIDENCY.


MAY TINUBU CONTINUE TO RUN AFTER THE IGBO MAN UNTIL HIS TENURE ELAPSE, WE ARE ENTERING THE LAST 24 MONTHS LEFT.


LET HIM AND INEC COME AND RIG ELECTION AGAIN IN 2027, THAT IS WHERE NIGERIANS ARE WAITING FOR HIM.

In as much as I'm not a fan of Tinubu, the problem here is not tinubu. It's his own Igbo brothers who are fighting him. I've noticed this pull him down syndrome amongst igbos who do not like to see their own brothers rise above them. And when the hausas and yorubas take advantage of this division, they begin to cry foul and marginalisation. This kinda infighting can never be heard of amongst yorubas or northerners.

No wonder he behaves like a mumu

How does someone cash out on huge amounts of crypto without being frozen by the bank

Officer4:
X = -2

Show working

If x^2-x^3=12, what is x?
And show working please

Kayberg:
B

Reason?

angelboy01:
A

Reason?

Solve this
Give reasons for your answer

Tallesty1:
Doctors are in that church, nurses and security operatives too, people that their phone must not be off.


The man should stop acting like deputy Jesus abeg, last I checked, he is the one that said God called him.

Nobody can prove that.

Exactly! As a doctor that receives emergencies at anytime, I don't know if it's proper that I switch my phones off or I should rather not go to church to avoid not attending to emergencies if they come

hedonido:
Pepe would shoot to the moon with this Coinbase listing. Na Pepe gan gan be the main Bull wey get this Run. It would be the 'Shiba' of this cycle.

I will throw in serious block into it if any major 'correction' or dip happens soon.

I envy the lucky bastards who got in super early and stayed the course. I would have started pricing the pink Bugatti I plan to buy for my darling Ayra Starr.

I doubt it would significantly increase. It's market cap is already on the high side (in tens of billions) in addition to a very high circulation of tokens. For it to do more than 10x, it means it's market cap would outperform that of Bitcoin and ethereum which is impossible, being a meme coins with no utility value. In my opinion, for pepe to give significant profit, the circulating supply has to reduce (eg by token Burning) which will reduce it's market cap and make such profits feasible.
Before I buy any token, I always look at these two factors... the market cap and token supply. I generally try to avoid meme coins with very high market cap and circulating supply at same time because you know you won't make significant gains with them.

A wise man once asked me a question - if you chase a snake or a rat, do they come to you? The answer is simply NO. They run away from you. The same principle applies to money.
You see, the general principle in life is that the more you chase money the more it runs away from you. You have to attract money not chase it, like you'd dangle cheese before a rat or bone before a dog. And you can only attract money by having stuffs like skills, etc which draw money towards you, not the other way around. The day I learnt this principle the better my life became. Wisdom is profitable to direct.

The preposition "in" sounds incorrect. I'd rather use "of". And gain sounds more commanding

Whenever opinions and comments are made on issues especially one that has to do with advice on relationships or relationship related issues, I noticed that most comments from ladies or female folks tend to be completely emotional and almost always lack logic. This has made me to develop the habit of subconsciously skipping comments made by anything with (f) attached to the name or moniker of the commenter so as to avoid wasting my precious time on illogical or purely emotional comments.
I was just wondering if I'm the only one who does this.

One drawback of the GDP is that it's dependent on a country's population. So the higher a country's population the likely lower the GDP per capita and vice versa. That's what plays out in Seychelles and other smaller countries over there in the list which have populations in only hundreds of thousands compared to Nigeria which has over 200million population

Pepperdemisback:
Did you not read the reason the woman gave that got him annoyed?

I did sir

If you can help you assist. For me there's no reason to start fight over this. Show some maturity. That she hasn't communicated with you for a long while isn't a reason you can't or shouldn't help if you can. If you can't help,then politely let her know. Don't antagonize her over the past, it's sheer immaturity especially if you guys are related.
You see in this life, you never know when you'd need the help of someone you least expect to receive from. Even her child might be your saviour tomorrow or might help your kids too. Just apply wisdom with maturity to the whole thing. And one thing I've noticed is this, when someone does something wrong to you and you still go ahead to assist the person despite the wrong the person did to you, that person would remain loyal and indebted to you. That's one of the tricks these politicians use to secure eternal loyalty