The announcement comes ahead of Emirates Airlines' resumption of Lagos-Dubai flights scheduled for October 1, 2024.
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The Federal Government has reached an agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to enable Nigerian passport holders to obtain visas to travel to this Arab country starting today, July 15, 2024.
Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this on Monday while briefing House correspondents after the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
The announcement comes more than two years after the UAE suspended the issuance of visas to Nigerians following a prolonged diplomatic dispute with Africa's most populous country.
It also comes about two months after the UAE's national carrier, Emirates Airlines, announced the resumption of flights to Nigeria.| The airline announced in May that its daily flights from Lagos to Dubai would resume from October 1, 2024.
Emirates Airlines suspended its Dubai to Lagos flights in 2022 because of its inability to repatriate funds stuck in Nigeria in the heat of the diplomatic fireworks between both countries.
Nigeria and the UAE have a long history of flight restrictions between the two countries due to certain unresolved issues relating to the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA).| Visa restrictions later arose as the diplomatic fireworks continued between Nigeria and the UAE, a major destination for Nigerian migrants and tourists.
In September 2023, President Bola Tinubu met with the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi to smooth out rough edges in diplomatic relations between the two countries.
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