Henley & Partners Group, a citizenship advisory firm, says it is setting up an office in Lagos to help wealthy people get a second passport.
Bloomberg reports that the company is setting up in Nigeria on the back of rising interests in its services which it said has jumped to more than 1,000 in the first quarter of 2020 from 750 in 2019.
“We have been engaging with Nigerian and West African clients for over three years now and have seen constant growth,” Dominic Volek, Henley’s head of sales was quoted to have said.
“The significant increase in wealth creation in the region has created a consequent surge in demand for our services.
“These clients can become very wealthy but at the end of the day they are limited because of the passport that they hold.”
Volek said some of the clients are Nigerians who prefer to make money at home and have access to other options like better education, healthcare and last-minute business travel.
The company helps clients to secure citizenship of various countries in the Caribbean including St. Kitts and Nevis and other European countries that offer citizenship by investment option.
Countries like the US, UK, Portugal and Canada offer citizenship by investment option for as high as $1 million while smaller countries offer citizenship to investors at $200,000.
A 2019 passport index published by Henley & Partners showed that Nigerian passport holders could visit 47 countries without needing to apply for a visa before leaving the country, unlike Japanese passport holders that enjoy visa-free/visa-on-arrival access to 190 destinations. (The Cable)
