Goodbye Dubai: UAE bans visa for Nigerians, Emirates suspends flight

Sopuruchi Onwuka

Signature airline for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Emirates, has declared termination of further flights into Nigeria after it also stated that it could not get its ticket money out of the country following dollar crunch.

The notice which came weekend would be the second time since September the airline would suspend flights to Nigeria over difficulties in gaining access to its ticket proceeds.

The latest suspension of flight also came just days after the UAE banned further visa for citizens of Nigeria and some 19 other African countries. The situation now makes any travel from Nigeria to Dubai or any other city in UAE very difficult.

Whereas inability to secure access to its service revenue from the country forced the Emirates Airline to suspend further flights to Nigeria, it is not very clear while the country banned visa processing for Nigerians traveling to or through the country to other destinations.

Either way, it would have made poor business sense for the Emirates to continue flying the Nigerian route after visitors from the country are no longer welcome in UAE.

Repatriation of proceeds for foreign businesses selling goods and services in the local market has proven very difficult as access to the dollar at official rate becomes increasingly difficult due to money policy management crisis hitting the Central Bank of Nigeria in the tail end of Buhari’s administration.

Citizens and businessmen relying on the official window to secure foreign exchange are now turning to parallel markets where strong demand and supply weakness have created huge gaps in exchange rate, with Naira rolling downhill.

An Emirates spokesperson said the airline had attended several meetings with the Nigerian government and proposed ways to clear a backlog of blocked funds.

“This included the repatriation and receipt of at least 80% of our remaining blocked funds by the end of October 2022, in addition to providing a guaranteed mechanism to avoid future repatriation accumulation challenges and delays,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“Under these extraordinary circumstances Emirates had no option but to suspend flights to/from Nigeria from 29 October 2022 to mitigate against further losses moving forward.”

A spokesman for Nigerian aviation ministry could not be immediately reached for comment.

Emirates did not say how much it was owed in Nigeria but the airline resumed flights in September after the Nigerian central bank released $265 million to airlines to settle outstanding ticket sales.

Meanwhile, the UAE issued visa ban for citizens of 20 African countries including Nigeria as well as the Dominican Republic.

A notice was issued that read, “This is to inform you that we will not be posting 30 days visa applications for these nationalities effective today October 18, 2022.”

The nationalities included in the visa ban are Uganda, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Cameroon, Nigeria, Liberia, Burundi, Republic of Guinea, Gambia, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Benin, Ivory Coast, Congo, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Comoros, and the Dominican Republic.

Local authorities notified all trade partners, including travel agents, that all applications from citizens of these countries are to be rejected.

“Any applications from the above-mentioned countries will be sent back or canceled.”

This is not the first time people from African countries have been barred from entering the United Arab Emirates.

In December 2021, Emirates Airlines, one of the country’s flag carriers, announced that travelers from eight African nations would not be allowed to travel or transit through until further notice. The stated reasoning behind the previous ban was to “limit the spread of COVID-19.”

Some have speculated that the recent ban is due to some visitors from the specified countries overstaying their visas. Others believe it has something to do with the ongoing aviation issues between UAE and one of the countries, Nigeria.

Some believe it is a racial discrimination tactic aimed at reducing the number of Black people entering the country. However, the reason for the new ban has not been stated and remains unclear.