The Nigerian Private Sector Alliance (NiPSA) has condemned the action of the Egyptian Embassy in Abuja for denying Nigerian delegates invited to participate in the ongoing Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) visas. The trade fair holding in Egypt began on November 9 and will end on November 15 2023.

NiPSA is the apex body and a not-for-profit multi-stakeholder platform for private sector engagement in Nigeria.

Addressing a news conference in Abuja yesterday, the Executive Director, NiPSA, Legborsi Nwiabu, said that IATF facilitates meetings and networking opportunities with major African trade actors and political stakeholders.

“We view with great concern that an unjustified mass refusal of visas to participants from Nigeria in the preparation for the Intra African Trade Fair.

“We are aware that a lot of private sector business owners and traders purchased travel tickets, paid for exhibition stands and shouldered a lot of important costs in order to participate at the ongoing IATF. But, unfortunately Nigerian businesses and private sector groups, were denied and refused visas based on unacceptable, exclusionary and discriminatory argumentation and within the framework of a visa application process that denies the rights of the people to freedom of movement and assembly under the relevant African conventions, protocols and treaties,” he stated.

He said that over 700 Nigerian private sector players were invited to participate at the fair but the majority of them could not secure visas for no justifiable reason.

Nwiabu who was joined at the briefing by Sand Mba Kalu, Dr. Henry Mrs. Titi Ojo and Mrs. Prisca Opone, appealed to the President, the Senate President and the Minister, Foreign Affairs to take urgent steps to address the situation without delay by contacting the Egyptian Prime Minister, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egyptian Ambassador to Nigeria and other pertinent authorities so that the Nigerian delegates that were invited to participate in the various activities of the IATF will receive their visas and compensated with full refunds of their expenses.

“We also direct a letter of protest to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for an emergency meeting with the Ministry to be scheduled in order to request a ministerial directive that will revert the visa denial syndromes by the various embassies particularly, Egypt and South Africa.

“We believe that the denial of visas is of extreme gravity and constitutes an unacceptable violation of the right to movement and to travel. It consolidates a colonial and racist dynamic that separate between those that can and those that cannot travel and participate in intra African trade. With this it completely undermines the raison d’être of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement and the Protocols on Free Movements of persons in Africa,” he stated.

Nwiabu said that the Egyptian Embassy curated an exploitative visa application process by collecting N7000 from over 700 Nigerian applicants as fee for visa form minus the $100 charged as visa fee.

According to him, “We are also shocked that without regard to government officials from the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, their interventions on behalf of delegates were rejected and turned down.

“We hereby demand that the Egyptian Ambassador to Nigeria should be invited to explain why Nigerians were so treated with disrespect and dishonour. We wish to place on record that IATF is a continental market place for people from all walks of life, and that it is neither an event of religious faith nor a forum of regions or states.

“We totally reject the list of businesses that have been given visas. We find it very disturbing and unacceptable that Nigerian booths and exhibitions stands were rendered empty and deserted

“We find it equally untenable that business men and women were subjected to visa requirements that contravene the very essence of promoting intra African trade.”