May 14, (THEWILL) – The Federal Executive Council (FEC), has approved the establishment of a tripartite committee to streamline visa processes and acquisition.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammad Idris, disclosed this on Tuesday, while briefing State House correspondents at the end of a 2-day meeting of the FEC, presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
Idris explained that the approval is aimed at easing processes for foreign investors.
“Our visa processes are becoming cumbersome. The ease of doing business is also tied to our visa processes. Going forward, those investors, tourists would find it easy to acquire a visa within the next 48 hours”, Idris said.
Meanwhile, the FEC has approved a memo stopping the exemption granted to some users of the airports from paying tollgate fee.
The approval followed a memorandum presented to the council by the minister of aviation, Festus Keyamo, who argued that the government was losing over 82% of the revenue it should have earned from the e-tags that provide access to the tollgates.
Keyamo told the State House correspondents that the memoranda, had initially prescribed an exemption for only the president and the vice president before Tinubu overruled and directed that both of them should be included among those that must pay.
The Minister regretted that Very Important Persons (VIPs), with financial capacity had previously been exempted from the toll fee, noting that only poor people had been charged for using the tollgates.
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