Following a report by Washington Post that an internal memo signed by Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, that United States President Donald Trump is considering imposing a travel ban on Nigeria and 35 other countries, mostly from Africa, members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) have strongly warned that this could cause a strain on Nigeria-US relationship and also threatens $14 billion volume of trade between the two countries.
Specifically, the affected countries are expected to meet new requirements laid down by the State Department within 60 days.
The new list includes Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Others are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Bhutan, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The countries are also expected to submit to the State Department, on Wednesday, an initial plan of action to meet the new requirements. Meanwhile, the private sector group, comprising membership organisations, namely:
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enter prises (NASME), Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), and Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE). The OPS lamented that Nigeria’s name featuring on the list was not good for the country’s images at the international scene.
Speaking in a telephone interview with New Telegraph on behalf of the OPS, the Director and Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, explained that the ban was going to affect Nigeria’s relationship with the US as the latter is a major trading partner with Nigeria.
According to him, it will be absurd for President Donald Trump’s administration to ban Nigeria, saying the fresh ban could be on immigration issues, especially on large number of Nigerians living in the US with expired visas and stiff conditions for those fresh Nigerians about to visit the US. Yusuf said:
“It’s going to affect our bilateral relationship, because US is a major trading partner with Nigeria. We have quite a number of US investors in Nigeria, particularly in the oil and gas space. So in terms of trade, investment ties, I think we are closely linked with the US.
So if we have such things, which I doubt will happen, it will adversely impact on our investment and trade relationship, and that should not be good for the two economies and it should not also be good for our diplomatic relationship. It will not be good at all.
“We have come a long way with the US. So I don’t see that happening for a country like Nigeria. I don’t see it happening. “Nigeria’s name may have popped up perhaps because of, maybe, instances of our people that have gone there and that have overstayed their visas because that is a major consideration, otherwise, I wouldn’t know why Nigeria’s name popped up on the list.”
On the it’s effects on the country’s aviation sector, the CPPE boss said: “Yes, it will affect travels. Yes, it will affect air traffic between here and the US and that has an implications for our aviation sector. It has a lot of implications because quite a number of Nigerians travel to the US and the air traffic between Nigeria and the US is very high.
So if you have this kind of things, it may affect business tourism and other forms of tourism in Nigeria and the United States. “It’s going to affect the aviation sector, it’s going to affect the tourism sector and even on their own side as well.
