Nigeria was left out from the list of seven new countries recently granted visa free entry by South Africa as the country gets set to launch its new e-visa system in November in a bid to boost tourism, Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa’s minister of home affairs, said in a statement on Thursday.
According to him, it will boost tourism and contribute to the economy of the country, noting that the e-visa system will advance deployment of immigration as a tool for economic development outlined in the national development plan (NDP). .
He said, “We do this by making life easier for our sister departments such as tourism to boast their tourism figures,” he said.
“Tourism will soar if we relax visa requirements for entry into South Africa. We know that Tourism is very important for job creation.
“Out of the 193 countries who are member states of the United Nations, the department has granted visa-free status to 75 countries. Of these 16 are on our continent and are SADC members and 59 are from all over the world.
“Today, we wish to announce an addition to our visa-free countries. These are: Qatar, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Ghana, Sao Tome and Principe.
“We will immediately enter into discussions with them about how a visa-free regime will work. We still have some homework to do for 3 countries whose combined populations make up close to 30% of the world’s population i.e. China, India and Nigeria.”
However, Motsoaledi assured that while they are busy tackling the matter, his country will double the number of people who process visas to South Africa in Nigeria.
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