Chinedu Eze

Nigerians who seek visa to travel to major countries in Europe, the United States and Asia, spend over N75 billion annually on non-refundable payments for visa, THISDAYinvestigation has revealed.

According to the investigation, over 60 per cent of visa requests are rejected with many of the applicants having to apply again and again, making new payments.

While some of them are given, many are not, no matter how many times they tried; so, they lose the money paid for these visa requests.

For instance, the US embassy interviews applicants in different groups a day; if the number of applicants are conservatively put to 300 applicants per day, (the number is obviously higher than this) at the cost of N299, 700 per applicant (the current cost of visa application), it will come to N89, 910, 000.

If this is multiplied with the five days of a working week, it will amount to N449, 550, 000;  multiplied by four weeks, which is one month, it will rise to N1,798, 200, 000 and N21, 578, 400, 000 when multiplied by 12 months.

For the UK visa request, 200 applicants were chosen for six months visa, which cost N279, 000 with total of N55, 800, 000 per day, amounting to N55, 800, 000 a week, N1.1 billion a month and N13.3 billion a year. This is excluding the £1,070 for 24 hours and £500 for five working days applicants pay for priority visa.

Schengen, which is about 27 countries charges N161,015 per applicant, which is N241,522,500 a week and N966,090,000 a month and N11,593,080,000 per annum.

Conservative calculation of the non-refundable payments by Nigerian applicants for these three major visas is N46, 471, 480, 000 and together with the projection of the cost of visa to Canada, China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and others amount to about N75 billion repatriated from Nigeria annually.

The UK visa cost did not include the applicants who request for two years, which costs about N969, 699; applicants who request for 5 years visa, which cost about N1 732, 188 and applicants who request for 10 years visa, which cost about N2, 161, 918, as at July 14, 2025.

THISDAY learnt that conservatively over 3000 Nigerians make this request every year and the fees are also non-refundable.

It is the view of many that Nigerians should cut down their request for foreign trips because embassies have seen visa fees charged Nigerians as huge sources of generating revenue and that many Nigerians who travel overseas do so for emotional reasons; just to be like the Joneses, a band wagon effect triggered by different types of competition, from village to neighbours in the city and to colleagues and contemporaries trying to overdo themselves.

“I have witnessed over time that some of these trips we do overseas is a waste of money. Some of us travel because our neighbour travelled and he and his family are showing off the pictures on social media; that our kinsman who used to beg me for money travelled and I want to also travel because he is showing off a lot in the village; that the man who has a shop after mine travelled and I also want to travel. These non-serious issues are the compelling reasons why many Nigerians travel. It is really an ego trip, seeking for validation, status symbol and rivalry. We know there are those who travel for business, importers, exporters, manufacturers, diplomats, top public servants, resource persons etc. but I can tell you that in Nigeria, when an average citizen feels he has started making money he will arrange for a trip and he will be willing to pay anything and his desire to travel increases as he is rejected by the embassies,” a travel consultant told THISDAY.

Managing Director of Travel Lab Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Shalom Asuquo, explained that beyond those that travel overseas to show off, there are serious travellers who travel for business, holiday and other reasons. These are Nigerians who have been travelling over the years who have long term visas and are way off financially. In addition, there are students who travel overseas for studies and there are many of them, especially in the UK, US, Canada and recently China.

On the cost of visas, Asuquo noted that there are other fees outside the cost of visa applications that are paid for the UK visa like VIP and other services and on the Schengen, she said “there are tourist, transit, student and medical visas, the later seem to cost most in addition to cost of health insurance.”

She said that Nigerians travel to Italy for tourism, religion, leather goods and to do other kinds of business, while France is for tourism, perfume and fashion and Germany for aviation, automobile products, education and trade. Denmark is for conference while Switzerland for diplomacy, conferences and banking.

Nigerians have over the years faced strict visa conditions from many countries, especially Western nations, despite the fact that they relatively charge Nigerians more for visa.

One of the reasons is demand. Many Nigerians want to leave their country for the so-called greener pastures overseas.

According to sources, there was a spike in the number of Nigerians leaving the country due to bad governance, especially since 2016 due to constricting economy and from 2020 due to clamp down on activists, which gave rise to so many Nigerians seeking asylum in other countries, especially the youths.

According to reports, the main reason Nigerians decide to move is usually to find better job opportunities and higher standards of living for themselves and their families.

Few years ago, there was rush for higher degrees like Masters and PhD by Nigerians to the UK, where more often, a man travels with his family; while he is working, his wife would be studying. Reports indicate that a lot of Nigerians travel overseas seeking for work in healthcare, technology, finance, and education, all of which are in high demand around the world.

Some Nigerians have also left the country to find safety and security because of the political unrest and safety issues in some areas.

According to travelanders.com, Nigerians who live and work in other countries have made great contributions to those countries, doing great work in many fields.

They have taken on leadership roles, started businesses, and added to the communities they have moved to by sharing their rich cultural backgrounds. Their stories of success can inspire people who want to take the same path.

Analysis done by travlanders.com, showed that in 2023, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) reported that the number of Nigerians living outside of Nigeria with National Identification Numbers (NIN) had grown from 55,181 in February 2022 to 366,164 in February 2023—an increase of 563.57 per cent.

The medium quoted data from NIDCOM in 2023, which showed that there were 22.5 per cent registered Nigerians living in the UK, 21.4 per cent registered Nigerians living in the US, and 5.4 per cent registered Nigerians living in the UAE, adding that even Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) Migration Information Data Analysis System (MIDAS) showed that about 2,115,139 people left Nigeria in 2022, and another 1,574,357 left between January 1 and September 30, 2023. This means that a total of 3,679,496 people had left Nigeria in the last two years.

It is the view of many that the only way to stop the obsession to travel out of the country, is for Nigerian government to boost the economy and give hope to the youths; otherwise the ‘japa syndrome’ will continue and revenues from visa sales will continue to be a major source of revenue for the countries that Nigerians travel to.