The economic minister invited me to his country, sending me all the necessary documents. I went to the Angolan embassy in New York for a visa. It was to be put in a US passport. But instead of even collecting the application, they told me to wait. Yes, they wanted to call the President’s Office in Luanda, the nation’s capital. When they finished, they came to me and told me: while the minister sent this letter, the President’s office has not signed off – and because of that, we cannot issue you a visa. I called the minister’s office and the consultant handling everything. In the end, I left without the visa.
As I was there, many Americans were having the same issues: invitation letters from companies were meaningless because the President’s Office had not ratified. That was the time of the former leader of Angola: Dos Santos. Angola was the farthest country in Africa from Africa, I learnt. (They later got the approval but I felt if that was the mindset, the project I was going for has no chance.)
Where am I going? There is something amazing coming up in Nigeria: “The Nigerian government is adjusting its visa policy to attract foreign direct investment. The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) said that its decision to introduce the Visa on Arrival (VOA) facility was to attract foreign investments to the nation….Among many complaints against the ease of doing business in Nigeria, is the difficulty in securing visas for foreign investors.”
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Congratulations to the Government. This is a good initiative.
Nigeria Introduces Visa on Arrival to Attract Foreign Investments
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