Mr Jiten Vyas, the Chief Operating Officer of VFS Global in Africa, a visa processing company, has said that the United States of America and the United Kingdom are the most travelled destinations by Nigerians.
Vyas said in Lagos yesterday that data from his organisation had also revealed a rise in the number of Nigerians travelling to Europe, South Africa, Dubia and India, reported the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
“There has been a significant rise in travel by Nigerians, be it student travel, leisure or business, largely due to the improvement in income levels in the last few years.
“Several multinational companies have also set up base here and more Nigerian residents are becoming increasingly keen to travel or study abroad.
“The U.S. and UK remain popular travel destinations amongst Nigerians today; they also travel to Europe, Dubai, India and South Africa,” he said.
Vyas said that more countries had in the last decade taken advantage of outsourcing their visa application services to his organisation.
The VFS boss said that Nigeria had always been one of the top priorities of his organisation in the sub-Saharan region.
Vyas explained that his organisation was currently providing visa application services to 13 client governments in Nigeria, adding that the company was currently working on a project for the Nigeria Interbank Settlement Services to provide Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) for Nigerian account holders abroad.
“This initiative by the Central bank of Nigeria is aimed at providing a more secure banking platform for boosting Nigeria’s conventional security.
“Over the last decade more governments are seeing the advantages of having an outsourced visa services model,” he said.
Vyas also disclosed that VFS Global was currently in touch with Nigerian government departments to introduce technology, citizen services, immigration, foreigners and national identity registrations to them.
Credit: thisdaylive