JULY 15, 2024

BY  Chinedu Eze

Travel agencies have confirmed that many Nigerians will not embark on summer travel this year due to the current economic crunch and continuous depreciation of the naira, which in the last two weeks have been oscillating between N1, 500 to N1, 550 per dollar.

Compared to last year, travel agents who spoke to THISDAY, said that more Nigerians travelled for summer in 2023 than this year and expressed fear that unless the economy improves, international travel for holidays will continue to shrink.

The Founder and Managing Director of Travel Lab Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Shalom Asuquo, told THISDAY that people who did not take advantage of the crash of airfares in March and April this year found it difficult to pay for tickets because the fares started going up, as the naira continued to depreciate.

That was the period when Air Peace started the Lagos-London route and the International Air Travel Association (IATA) confirmed that the Federal Government had paid most of trapped fund of foreign airlines.

There was drastic drop of fares on international travel but the fares have gone up and have continued to go up.

Mrs. Asuquo said those who did not take advantage of that window have found it difficult to purchase tickets at the current rate  and some of them are even asking travel agencies to allow them to “pay small, small.”

“Those who did not make their plan to travel earlier in the year when there was drastic drop of fares when Air Peace started flight service to London, are finding it difficult to buy ticket now because the fares have gone up. Some are even asking us to allow them pay small, small. I have a group of women who are travelling to Kigali, Rwanda. The bill was about N900, 000 per person but when I wanted to book the flights, I found out that the fares have gone up. This is major disincentive to Summer travels.

“I did a package for a family at the cost of N14.6 million to Canada but when I wanted to do the booking, the fare went up again and they told me, please do something. This is the situation now. Many people are not travelling,” she said.

The Managing Director of Travel Lab Limited also disclosed that due to the high fares, travel agents try to get cheaper fares by taking other routes to the desired destination but the challenge there is that with such detour there could be visa problems.

For example, a holiday maker who wants to travel to Canada may want to go through Spain or Morocco to get cheaper fares but even on transit some countries require visa, some of them transit visa, which would take time to obtain.

“So, when you reroute there will be visa issues. These are the issues playing out. You may have a route that is cheaper, there will be visa restraint,” Asuquo said.

Also, the Chief Executive Officer of AJALA.NG Travels, Olamide Babayemi, told THISDAY that fewer number of people are demanding to travel for the Summer because of the depreciation of the naira, which has led to increase in airfares.

“Compared to last year, the number of people who have purchased ticket to travel for the summer are actually lower. Exchange rate has increased the fare for all travel service. Some are cancelling their bookings while some have not purchased tickets. Those who bought ticket by this time last year were higher,” she said.

THISDAY learnt that when the fares for international travel crashed in March and April this year, many expected that it could remain so because some were attributing the high fares to the trapped fund, which Nigeria had the highest at bout $800 million. So, after paying off the airlines; many Nigerians projected that fares would continue be at the reduced rate because, compared to other countries around Nigeria like Ghana, Togo and others, fares charged by foreign airlines are outrageously higher in Nigeria, but with further depreciation of the naira, the fares went up again.

JULY 16, 2024

The Federal Government has repatriated 190 stranded Nigerians from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Bashir Garga, the National Emergency Management Agency’s (NEMA) zonal director in the North Central, on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said that the returnees were received at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Tuesday at 5:57 a.m.

He said the returnees were received by a combined team of government officials led by NEMA.

He said that the returnees were profiled and documented by the relevant agencies and sensitised to behave with decorum and responsibility on their return to Nigeria.

“The Federal Government urges all Nigerians, wherever they may be, to act as exemplary ambassadors of their country, by upholding the fundamental values of patriotism, rule of law, decency, and integrity,” the statement says. (NAN)

JULY 16, 2024

Following the lift of visa ban on Nigerian passport holders on Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has demanded that applicants pay a sum of N640,000 as non-refundable application fees for visas.

BusinessDay’s findings show that before the visa ban, the fee was $100. With the current naira to dollar exchange rate (N1,555), in the I & E window, it cost N155,500.

Also part of the requirements to visit UAE with a Nigerian passport is that applicants must obtain a Document Verification Number, (DVN) before applying for visa.

The N640,000 fee does not guarantee a visa to UAE as issued DVN will only be valid for 14 days of issuance or once the visa application has been processed by the visa application department (whichever of these come first).

These are in accordance to the new visa issuance guidelines established by the government of the UAE.

Several Nigerians have taken to their X handle to express their displeasure on the new visa fee.

NEFERTITI with X handle @firstladyship stated, “It is obvious the UAE don’t want Nigerians. They reluctantly unbanned the Nigerian passport, but slammed a hefty N640,000 on Nigerians. “Guess what? The money is nonrefundable & has expiration date. This is see finish.”

Prince with X handle @Peco3D, state “This is just extortion in fine words. Shameless”

“This is exploitation and shameful if allowed by Nigeria government,” Lucky man with X handle @Comr_lucky1 stated.

“You think FG constant solicitation was for mere Nigerians? The constant appeal from the Nigerian government to lift travel bans to the UAE appears to primarily benefit wealthy individuals and politicians seeking a haven for their ill-gotten wealth, rather than ordinary Nigerians,” MAYOR @Enokeran2016 with X handle stated.

Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation on Tuesday disclosed that the UAE has lifted the Visa ban on Nigerians travelling to the country.

The Minister made the announcement in a statement issued by Rabiu Ibrahim, the Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister on Monday in Abuja.

“You are aware that Nigeria has been discussing with the United Arab Emirates on the issue of Visa for Nigerian passport holders going to the United Arab Emirates.

“Today, an agreement has been reached on that, and effective from today July 15, Nigerian passport holders are able to obtain Visa to go to the United Arab Emirates.

“I can tell you that the agreement has been reached and effective from today, Nigerian passport holders intending to travel to the UAE are able to do so,” said Idris.

The UAE had imposed a visa ban on Nigeria about two years ago due to various diplomatic disputes.

Additionally, Dubai’s Emirates Airline halted flights to Nigeria because the Central Bank of Nigeria couldn’t remit an estimated $85 million in revenue to the UAE.

In June, following several meetings with the UAE government, the Federal Government assured Nigerians that the visa ban would soon be lifted. In the same month, the Nigerian government announced that it had paid 98 per cent of $850m.

JULY 16, 2024

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says airfares rose two per cent year-over-year in June, and continued to soar above pre-pandemic levels.

Figures from the consumer price index show the increase follows a 4.5 per cent year-over-year bump in May and a fairly flat April.

Prices also stood nearly 19 per cent above what travellers paid for their plane tickets in June 2019.

The pricier fares stem partly from limited competition and flight capacity among airlines, which more than offset softening demand since the post-pandemic travel boom.

National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen says fares have risen for most of the year — including on key domestic routes — following an 11-month stretch of year-over-year declines, mainly in 2023.

However, he says WestJet may need to lower its prices in the short term to lure back customers after a two-day mechanics strike that prompted more than 1,300 flight cancellations and upended plans for at least 170,000 travellers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2024.

JULY 17, 2024

Trudeau government is rethinking how it gives work permits

‘Perhaps go home and bring those skills back to their country’

By Thomas Seal

(Bloomberg) -- Canada is reviewing how many long-term visas it grants to foreign students, underscoring the government’s desire to slow immigration and population growth.  

Federal and provincial officials have been discussing how to match labor market demand with international students, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said in a phone interview. Although Canada has for years used universities and colleges to bring in educated, working-age immigrants, study visas shouldn’t imply a guarantee of future residency or citizenship, he said.

“That should never be the promise. People should be coming here to educate themselves and perhaps go home and bring those skills back to their country,” he said. “That hasn’t always been the recent case.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has faced mounting pressure over the rising cost of living, intense competition for scarce housing and higher unemployment. Earlier this year, Canada imposed a new cap on the number of international student visas it issues — it’s projecting fewer than 300,000 new student permits this year, down from about 437,000 last year. 

Now officials are scrutinizing who among that pool of students should stay once they’re done with their studies. 

Canada needs to do a better job making sure jobs for international students are commensurate with the studies they’ve undertaken, Miller said. There’s a conversation about reflecting labor needs and “how we match post-graduate work permits to an increasingly contracting shortage of labor” in provinces.

“The logic for having uncapped or uncontrolled draws from abroad is no longer there.”

The number of people in Canada with those visas has grown rapidly: there were 132,000 new PGWP holders in the country in 2022, up 78% from four years earlier, according to government data. 

Changes to immigration policy will need discussion among governments and business, Miller said. Trudeau’s administration is also looking hard at how a separate program that allows companies to apply to bring in temporary foreign workers has been “used and abused,” Miller said, and he has committed to reducing the proportion of temporary residents to 5% of the population, from nearly 7%.

Foreign workers in Prince Edward Island have protested in recent weeks — with some even going on hunger strikes — after the provincial government slashed the number of permanent residency nominations for sales and service.

“Canada is now being seen as less welcoming as it has been before” for students, Miller said. But the update of that, he said, is that a study visa “is less and less being seen as a cheap way to attain permanent residency or entry into Canada, and more of a qualitative proposition — which is where we want to see it go back, to its original intent.”

However, after attending a roundtable with local media in Surrey, British Columbia, which has a large population of immigrants from South Asia, Miller said he’s also concerned by signs of racism in Canada.

“We’ve built a very important consensus around immigration in Canada, but that’s being chipped away at.”

--With assistance from Randy Thanthong-Knight.

JULY 17, 2024

By Nadine Yousif & Brandon Drenon

Canada has said it will cap the number of foreign students admitted to the country for two years in an attempt to address pressure on housing and healthcare in the country.

The cap will result in a decrease of 35% in approved study permits.

Over 800,000 foreign students were in Canada in 2022, up from 214,000 a decade earlier.

The new measures are also meant to ensure the "integrity" of the system, officials said.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced the cap on Monday, saying that Canada aims to approve around 360,000 undergraduate study permits this year.

Each province and territory will be allotted a portion of that total, determined by population and current student intake. Provinces will then decide how to distribute these permits across their universities and colleges.

The cap will only apply to students at a diploma or undergraduate programme, and will not affect students applying for study permit renewals.

As part of the change, the government will also no longer - as of September - grant work permits for students graduating from colleges that operate under a public-private partnership model, which is most commonly found in the province of Ontario.

"It's unacceptable that some private institutions have taken advantage of international students by operating under-resourced campuses, lacking supports for students and charging high tuition fees, all while significantly increasing their intake of international students," Mr Miller said.

He said the new measures are "not against individual international students" but are meant to ensure future students receive a "quality of education that they signed up for".

The announcement also comes as the Trudeau government faces growing pressure to address an increasingly unaffordable housing market.

Home prices in Canada now average C$750,000 ($550,000;£435,000) and rent for Canadians has risen 22% in the last two years.

Some economists have linked housing unaffordability to a spike in immigration, as home construction has not kept up with Canada's unprecedented population growth.

In 2022, the country grew by over a million people in the span of one year for the first time ever - a growth largely driven by newcomers. Last year Canada's population hit a record of 40 million people.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation - a national housing agency - estimates that the country needs 3.5 million more housing units by 2030 to restore affordability.

While population growth is part of the problem, experts have pointed to other pressures driving down the number of housing starts, including high interest rates that make homes less affordable.

The cost of building materials also remains elevated due to inflation and supply chain disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The cap represents a significant shift in policy for Canada, which has historically relied on open immigration to fill job vacancies and address its rapidly-aging workforce.

Mr Miller had previously hinted at reducing the number of international students admitted to Canada, drawing concern from some Canadian universities.

In response to Monday's announcement, Universities Canada, which represents post-secondary institutions across the country, said it welcomed that the cap is not affecting post-graduate students, but is concerned that it will "add stress on an already-stressed system".

The organisation also said it worries that some of the measures will deter students from coming to Canada, driving them to study elsewhere instead.

Last week, president of McMaster University in Hamilton, just outside of Toronto, said a cap would mean "a loss" for his institution.

"If we lost our international students, we would not be as rich from a learning-environment perspective," David Farrar told public broadcaster CBC in an interview., external

He added that tuition paid by international students helps offset costs for some domestic students, as universities struggle with limited government funding and budgets.

A cap on international students, he said, would mean the university will have to cut the number of domestic students it admits.

JULY 18, 2024

By Olaniyi Apanpa

The United Arab Emirates has denied approving $10k bank balance, and N640k fee requirements for Nigerians applying for visas into the country, reports The Cable.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, announced on Monday, that the UAE authorities agreed to vacate travel restrictions imposed on Nigerians.

Idris further revealed that applicants must fulfill certain conditions part of which was obtaining a document verification number on documentverificationhub.ae.

According to the website, the verification costs a non-refundable N640,000 excluding VAT for each application. This does not include the visa fee.

Additionally, applicants must provide a six-month bank statement showing a minimum balance of $10,000.

This development was condemned by air travellers who labelled the requirements as a “constructive ban,”.

However, inquiries by TheCable to the UAE’s Department of Economy and Tourism revealed that the DV hub website is not affiliated with the UAE government.

The department noted that document verification inquiries should be directed to Dubai’s General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs.

The GDRFAD meanwhile revealed that the visa application process requires a personal photo and a passport with at least six months validity. A tourist visa costs approximately 200-300 dirhams (N60,000 – 90,000), depending on the length of stay.

Applicants also need a travel ticket and valid medical insurance for the UAE.

When asked about the $10,000 bank balance requirement, GDRFAD responded, “We are not aware of such requirements. Make your visa applications through the GDRFAD.”

The spokesperson for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eche Abu-Obe, assured that further clarification on the matter would be sought from the ministry’s office in the Middle East.

It would be recalled that the UAE had imposed a visa ban on Nigeria barely two years ago due to various diplomatic disputes.

Additionally, Dubai’s Emirates Airline halted flights to Nigeria because the Central Bank of Nigeria couldn’t remit an estimated $85 million in revenue to the UAE.

In June, following several meetings with the UAE government, the Federal Government assured Nigerians that the visa ban would soon be lifted.

During the same month, the Nigerian government announced that it had paid 98 percent of $850 million.

JULY 18, 2024

By Promit Mukherjee and Nivedita Balu

OTTAWA (Reuters) - With many Canadian homeowners facing a sharp rise in mortgage payments, many of them have decided to bail, resulting in the highest number of Toronto housing units for sale in more than a decade and signaling a big drop in prices in the coming months.

In Toronto, a city where two-thirds of the country's condominiums are sold, considered a bellwether for other big metropolitan areas, inventories have pushed past highs reached 10 years ago, data showed. At the same time, sales have lagged.

Rising inventories with anemic sales show a high degree of stress in Canada's biggest property market, real estate consultants said. It indicates either a string of defaults or a price correction is in the offing.

Fueling the surge in available properties are homeowners and investors who bought houses and apartments five years ago at record-low mortgage rates, aiming to grab a piece of Toronto's lucrative rental market.

But those mortgages are now coming up for renewal in an interest rate environment starkly different than it was five years ago. Mortgage rates are sharply higher, although the Bank of Canada has recently started to guide them down.

In Canada, mortgages are typically for 25 years and renewed every three or five years, in contrast to the United States, where homeowners can enjoy a flat rate for the entire life of a 15-year or 30-year mortgage.

Under current rates, many homeowners would have their mortgage payments double, according to a calculation by ratehub.ca, a website that compares mortgage offerings.

Next year, roughly C$300 billion ($219.33 billion) of mortgages at chartered banks will come up for renewal.

"Some of them are investors who now just want to walk away from their units because they can't afford it," said Carl Gomez, chief economist at CoStar Group, a U.S.-based real estate information provider.

At the same time, many are also reluctant to lower asking prices and book losses on their investment, he said, at least for now.

"There's just limited willingness to lose money," said Daniel Foch, director of economic research at RARE Real Estate. "It seems like nobody has really adjusted their expectations to a market in which they aren't going to make a profit," he said.

The trend is especially pronounced in the condominium market, where inventory is at a historic high, said John Lusink, president of Right at Home Realty, Canada's largest independent housing brokerage firm.

The current supply would typically take more than five months to sell.

"It is a buyers' market with no buyers," he said.

According to Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, a group representing 70,000 brokers and salespeople in the Toronto area, listings have risen by almost 25% in the first three months of 2024 from the same period a year ago. Meanwhile sales have edged up by only 5.3%.

The Bank of Canada's next rate decision comes on July 24 with a majority of economists expecting another cut of 25 basis points in the overnight rate. Last month, it trimmed the benchmark rate to 4.75% from 5% for the first time in four years.

But economists say that even as the central bank's rate comes down by 100 basis points, it would have a muted impact on mortgage rates coming up for renewal. Five-year fixed rates are instead linked to long-term bond yields, which might hover in the 3% to 4% range.

"Something's got to give," Lusink said, forecasting that Toronto condo prices might drop by 10% by end of the year.

($1 = 1.3678 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee and Nivedita Balu; Editing by Frank McGurty and Nick Zieminski)

JULY 18, 2024

By Solomon Odeniyi

The United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Nigeria, Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi, clarified on Wednesday that UAE’s decision to cancel its visa-on-arrival policy was not targeted at Nigerians.

He explained that UAE cancelled visa-on-arrival not just for Nigerians but all other foreign nationals.

Al-Shamsi spoke on Wednesday when he received on courtesy visit the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

The details of the meeting were disclosed in a statement by NiDCOM’s spokesman, Gabriel Odu.

The statement quoted  Al-Shamsi as confirming that the UAE had lifted the visa ban on Nigerians as announced by the Federal Government on Monday.

“He confirmed that the visa-on-arrival policy has been cancelled for all countries, but assured that the new procedures are designed to facilitate tourism and ensure travellers’ safe return.

“The ambassador expressed his commitment to providing the best possible services for Nigerians, with the support of the determined Nigerian government. He also acknowledged the UAE’s role in safely repatriating 96 Nigerians at no cost,” the statement said.

Marking his first anniversary as the UAE Ambassador to Nigeria, Al-Shamsi shared his positive impressions of Nigeria, describing it as a beautiful country with warm-hearted people who share similar cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds with the UAE.

He expressed his eagerness to continue collaborating with NiDCOM to strengthen ties between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the NiDCOM Chairman, Dabiri-Erewa, disclosed that an additional 250 Nigerians would be repatriated from the United Arab Emirates soon.

 “Dabiri-Erewa stated that NiDCOM intends to engage and sensitise Nigerians in the UAE to be good ambassadors of their country of stay and country of origin, to excel in whatever they are doing and never to forget home. She added this initiative aims to foster better understanding and compliance with local regulations.

“She also disclosed that 190 Nigerians were repatriated to Nigeria, with an additional 250 expected to return soon. She noted that the actions of individuals in a host country could greatly impact the overall image of their home country. She also noted the role of Western media imperialism in perpetuating negative stereotypes about Nigerians,” the statement added.

The Federal Government had on Tuesday repatriated a total of 190 Nigerians from the UAE.

The returnees were received at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at 05:57 pm by a combined team of government officials led by the National Emergency Management Agency.

In October 2023, the FG repatriated a total of 542 Nigerians from the UAE.

Speaking during a visit to the UAE Ambassador to Nigeria, Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi in Abuja, Dabiri-Erewa stated that NiDCOM intended to engage and sensitise Nigerians in the UAE to be good ambassadors of UAE and Nigeria.

JULY 18, 2024

Another batch of 250 stranded  Nigerians will be evacuated back home soon from United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abike Dabiri-Erewa Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDcom), said yesterday.

The country on Tuesday evacuated 190 Nigerians from the UAE.

Mrs   Dabiri-Erewa made this known during a visit to the United Arab Emirates’ Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi.

The meeting followed the lifting of  visa ban on Nigeria by the UAE.

The oil rich gulf country had in October 2022 banned nationals of Nigeria and 19 other African countries from entering its capital city, Dubai.

The visit was part of the efforts towards deepening relations between the two countries.

Dabiri-Erewa, according to a statement by Gabriel Odu, Media, Public Relations and Protocol unit: “One hundred and ninety Nigerians were repatriated to Nigeria, with an additional 250 expected to return soon.”

She noted that the actions of individuals in a host country could greatly impact the overall image of their home country.

She, therefore, noted that she “intends to engage and sensitise Nigerians in the UAE to be good ambassadors of their country of stay and country of origin, to excel in whatever they are doing and never to forget home.

 She added: “This initiative aims to foster better understanding and compliance with local regulations”.

She also noted the role of Western media imperialism in perpetuating negative stereotypes about Nigerians.

Ambassador Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi explained that the Visa on Arrival policy had been cancelled for all countries, but assured that the new procedures were designed to facilitate tourism and ensure travellers’ safe return.

The ambassador expressed his commitment to providing the best possible services for Nigerians, with the support of the determined Nigerian government. He also acknowledged the UAE’s role in safely repatriating 96 Nigerians.

Marking his one-year anniversary as the UAE Ambassador to Nigeria, Al-Shamsi shared his positive impressions of Nigeria, describing it as a beautiful country with warm-hearted people who share similar cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds with the UAE. He expressed his eagerness to continue collaborating with NiDCOM to strengthen ties between the two countries.

Mrs Dabiri-Erewa confirmed the development on ‘X’ yesterday.