Zimbabwe set top relax travel restrictions for Nigerians

Tourism and Hospitality Minister Engineer Walter Mzembi has promised to relax travel restrictions for Nigerians as the country seeks to forge stronger ties with the West African country.

Eng Mzembi, who was in Calabar, Cross River State capital in Nigeria, disclosed this at the Presidential dinner organised in honour of African Tourism Ministers and delegates attending the 53rd UNWTO Commission for Africa last week.

"For standing by Zimbabwe when the Western countries imposed sanctions against us, we promise to work on relaxing, or better still, remove restrictions on Nigerians coming to our country," said Eng Mzembi.

He added that Nigerians were the ones that oiled the wheels of most of the country's businesses between 2008 and 2011 when the international community abandoned Zimbabwe.

"To this end, I am going to present a proposal to my Government that would ease restrictions on Nigerians travelling to Zimbabwe by elevating them from 'Category C' to 'Category B', which would make it possible for them to be given visas at the point of entry," explained Eng Mzembi.

Quizzed to explain why he would court Nigerians at a time when most advocates of indigenisation were calling for the revocation of business licences held by Nigerians trading in sectors reserved for locals, Minister Mzembi indicated that the country should not pander to the colonial legacy of divide-and-rule "that sees the better African in some of us, and crooks in the rest".

Added Eng Mzembi: "Remember, Nigeria has a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of $200 billion, representing 0,35 percent of global GDP. Its economy is second only to

South Africa in terms of continental performance. Its economy is mainly anchored by oil production, and during the 53rd UNWTO Commission for Africa meeting held in Calabar, Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan underscored the new thrust that seeks to de-emphasise their mono-dependence on oil and mitigate this through a new thrust that promotes other sectors of the economy, tourism included.

"Nigeria recognises Zimbabwe's unassailable competencies in tourism and has appealed to us to drive - through our leadership positions in global tourism - the need for an 'African Schengen' visa that will open up the continent to intra-Africa travel and retain our share of tourism earnings within the continent."

Nigeria has scale equivalent to the entire Sadc put together, minus South Africa.

This scale and critical mass is being exploited by Europe and the Americas who are being motivated by the fact that Nigerians are big spenders.

It is believed that Europe and America are deliberately casting the West African nation in bad light so as to throw off course those who might be interested in the destination while they exclusively tap the lucrative market.

"It does not surprise, therefore, to find Africans placing each other in punitive travel categories like 'C', while they are welcomed with open arms in overseas markets.

"Nigeria, together with South Africa, is Africa's most viable and big-spender source market, and the sooner Africa wakes up to the conspiracy that seeks to keep us feeding on the crumbs, which is 3 percent of the global market share, the better," said Eng Mzembi.

Market watchers have observed that while the European crisis has taken a toll on the financial services sector, tourism and services, particularly the IT sector, have been very resilient, with the travel industry posting earnings in excess of $1,3 trillion in 2011 and a corresponding GDP impact of $6 trillion.

According to Minister Mzembi, Europe is now deliberately prejudicing African markets by levying high airport departure taxes that discourage long-haul travel and running a campaign to vilify emerging African markets such as Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nigeria through the mainstream global media.

He observed that some African countries even have visa regimes that "punishes our friends and rewards our detractors".