Travelling abroad for tourism has become increasingly difficult for Nigerians due to stricter visa requirements imposed by various countries.
Whilst not being specific on why stringent e-visa requirements are put in place, such measures, no doubt have caused several Nigerians loss of income and opportunities and valuable time.
One country that is presently in the eye of the storm for allegedly putting in place such measures, is Ethiopia.
Recently, its embassy faced accusations of defrauding Nigerian travellers by accepting payments for e-visas without issuing them or making refunds.
The travellers accused the Ethiopian embassy of being “deceptive” for not informing them that online visa applications had been scrapped, yet applications on the embassy’s official website continued without any indication that Nigerians were no longer eligible for e-visas.
Sunday PUNCH learnt that after the visa application portal receives payment from visa applicants, it leaves them stranded, thus, defeating the purpose of the application.
Angered by the development, some of those affected spoke with Sunday PUNCH while others took to social media platforms to vent their frustration.
No notification was given by the embassy that it had stopped issuing e-visas to Nigerian passport holders.
Travellers’ ordeals
One of the affected victims, who preferred to be identified only as Adventures of Ijoba, while speaking with our correspondent, alleged that despite being debited several times for an application and reaching out to the visa support group, he had yet to receive a refund since February.
Sharing his experience with our correspondent, the budding travel blogger narrated how he spent $247 to apply for Ethiopian e-visas and was yet to receive it.
He said, “I’m a new travel vlogger and planned to visit Ethiopia and Tanzania earlier this year. According to the information provided on their official website and IATA guidelines, I tried to apply for an e-visa on their e-visa portal but was unable to pay for days.
“I sent an email regarding the challenge with payment, and their support team, who responded to my query, told me to continue trying because everything was good from their end.
“I eventually got someone to use his UK debit card to pay for me. After multiple attempts, the payment eventually went through, and I was even debited twice for one application. I appealed for a refund for the erroneous debit on the platform but my emails were never responded to.”
Continuing, the travel blogger said normally, the e-visa should take a few days or a couple of weeks at most to be issued, but he waited in vain.
Adventures of Ijoba said he paid $82 and another $164, which included the double debit, making a total of $246, adding that six months after that experience, he had yet to receive a refund, nor issued an e-visa.
He said, “When it was about two weeks to my departure date, I had to travel to the Ethiopian embassy in Abuja to complain. The Ethiopian embassy’s representative informed me that e-visas had been discontinued for Nigerians. I asked for a refund and was told that the platform is managed by a different department and they could not assist me with that.”
Like Adventures of Ijoba, a foremost tech expert, Victor Asemota, suffered a similar fate.
Using his handle, @asemota, on X.com, while narrating his torturous experience on July 25, he said he spent $82 while applying for an Ethiopian e-visa, but never got to receive it.
He wrote, “What is really the problem between Ethiopia and Nigeria? They just let me waste another $82 on a visa they knew they were not going to issue. This is fraudulent, and they should refund it.
“If you are not issuing visas to Nigerians, say it openly without fear instead of taking our money and doing nothing. This is a 419 scam by the whole country.”
Another handle, @jime_marvel, while sharing her experience on X.com, said, “They took my money last year and had zero communication.”
Also commenting on the development, another user, @folucomms, responded by saying, “Ethiopia won’t respond to you if you pay for a visa online as a Nigerian, and they don’t refund (I hope this changes soon). To get an ET, you need to go to their embassy.
“If you’re going for any official reasons, make sure you request a note verbale from those you’re going to meet with. With a note verbale, you can get a visa on arrival for about $200.”
This was also confirmed by several travel agents who spoke with Sunday PUNCH. They stated that Ethiopia visa applications must be done physically at the embassy in Abuja.
Ethiopian Visa Problem
In late September 2022, the Ethiopian embassy in Abuja imposed a new restriction on Nigerian travellers.
It announced that it was scrapping its visa-on-arrival policy for Nigeria and 41 other countries.
The Ethiopian embassy advised travellers to either procure their visa from the embassy in Abuja or apply for an e-visa through the country’s Immigration and Citizenship Service portal.
The spokesperson for the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Francisca Omayuli, in a statement, said, “Nigerians bearing standard passports intending to travel to Ethiopia are advised to obtain appropriate entry visas at the Ethiopian Embassy or an electronic visa through the country’s Immigration and Citizenship Service portal at www.evisa.gov.et.
“Also, those transiting through Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to other destinations or intending to briefly stop over would require a valid entry visa to access hotel facilities in the city or would be obligated to remain in the airport pending their connecting flight.”
Speaking on the development then, the Ethiopian Airlines’ traffic and sales manager, Senait Ataklet, clarified to an online platform, The Cable, that the new development was not a ban but a replacement of the visa-on-arrival policy with the online visa application.
The manager said, “The information I have is that it’s not a ban on arrival visas, but you know just like a Nigerian requesting, they need an online form to be filled out before departure for an on-arrival visa. Even though it’s an arrival visa, you need to fill out an online form.
“Before, anybody could just go without applying, but when Ethiopians come to Nigeria, they need to fill out the online form on arrival. That’s the agreement, that’s what they are telling me now. They need to fill out an online visa-on-arrival requisition form.”
Currently, the Nigerian passport is placed 92nd with access to 45 countries, either with e-visa access or visa on arrival, according to the Henley and Partners official passport index of August 2024.
While Ethiopia is still among the countries listed as e-visa applicable, the experience of Nigerians in recent times has been different.
Almost two years into the new visa policy, Nigerian travellers who used to seamlessly apply for e-visas and receive them have found that while their applications and payments go through, they are not issued visas.
Disturbing Discovery
Checks by our correspondent on the official application site of the Ethiopian embassy found no information alerting Nigerians to the fact that they can no longer apply for e-visas.
Before proceeding with the application, among the compulsory terms and conditions to be accepted was that all payments are non-refundable and are also handled by the Ethiopian Airlines Group.
Furthermore, the site indicated countries where it would not accept payment.
The terms and conditions stated that credit card payments originating from Cuba, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, North Korea, Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Crimea region of Ukraine, and the Syrian Arab Republic were not accepted, effective November 18, 2020.
Meanwhile, there was still no mention of Nigeria being exempted from this list.
An attempt by our correspondent to apply for a visa went through successfully without any hitch or notification to officially inform her of the unannounced e-visa application restriction on Nigerian passport holders.
Checks on the International Air Transport Association website, an international trade body representing some 240 airlines comprising 84 per cent of total air traffic, which provides accurate up-to-date information on international travel requirements and restrictions for countries, showed that visas could be obtained before departure on the official Ethiopian government website – https://www.evisa.gov.et/ and that travellers must have a printed visa approval before departure.
But this has not been the experience of Nigerian travellers, who bemoaned the silent treatment mete out to them by the embassy after payments were made, yet no visa was issued or refund made.
Sifting through the Ethiopian Embassy’s official Facebook handle, the X handle of the Ethiopian Embassy in Abuja and the @EthioEmbassyNG website, our correspondent observed that no notification was given for the recent restrictions for Nigerian travellers.
Furthermore, emails sent to the address listed on their Facebook handle on July 26 and 30, respectively, have not yet been replied to.
The same goes for the visa support email address to which another mail was sent.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb Eche Abu-Obe, when contacted about the alleged fraudulent discovery linked to the Ethiopian embassy, via text message, said, “This has to be clarified from the Consular section first.” (Punch)
