NIGERIA – Non-ECOWAS Visitors Subject to Extension Fees
Effective September 22, 2015, all entry visa holders, including both business and tourist visitors, will only be allowed to stay in Nigeria for a cumulative period of 56 days. Those staying past 56 days are required to pay an extension fee and will be penalized if they do not pay the applicable fee. Details of these guidelines are not entirely clear so it might be possible that Temporary Work Permit holders might also be affected by this requirement but that may be subject to the discretion of immigration authorities. All foreign nationals of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are exempted from this requirement.
Non-ECOWAS visitors staying for a period of more than 56 days but not exceeding 90 days must pay an extension fee of 200 USD. Those staying for a period of more than 90 days but not exceeding 180 days are subject to an extension fee of 1,000 USD. Finally, any non-ECOWAS visitor staying for a period of more than 180 days but not exceeding 365 days must pay an extension fee of 2,000 USD. Those who overstay a period of 56 days without paying the applicable extension fees, will be subject to a fine of 100% of the relevant extension fee.
ECOWAS nations include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’ Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo.
These new guidelines are part of Nigeria’s e-Pass project, which was implemented by the NIS in hopes to develop a more efficient procedure for tracking the movement of visitors in Nigeria.