17,000 Chinese legally resident in Nigeria – Immigration boss

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Headlines Wednesday, July 31st, 2013

By PROVIDENCE OBUH

The number of Chinese citizens regularised and legally residing in Lagos and Ogun zone of the Nigeria Immigration service is about 17,000 according to Comptroller General of Immigration Service, Mr. David Parradang.

However the greatest challenge faced by the service comes from Chinese citizens who come into the country with visiting, tourist or business visa and take up paid employment in the country, Parradang said.

He disclosed this in his presentation titled: “Improving Immigration Services on Foreign Investment” at an interactive session on investment and security challenges, organised by Nigeria-Chinese Business Council (NCBC) in Lagos.

He told the gathering that paid employment is prohibited with these types of visas, but yet these Chinese are employed by their nationals that have companies in Nigeria, which is tantamount to breaking the rules and worse, the companies that employed them do not render monthly returns of expatriate quota as stipulated by the service.

According to him, “It is pertinent to give a breakdown of the number of Chinese citizens regularised and legally residing in the Nigeria Immigration Zone A (Lagos and Ogun States), and the problem encountered by our operatives in managing those working and residing illegally in Nigeria.

“In Immigration Zone A area, we have a total number of seventeen thousand, seven hundred and twenty eight (17,728) Chinese nationals regularised and legally residing here, bulk of the challenges we face come from Chinese who came into the country with visiting/tourist or business visa.”

He noted that over the years, the country has progressively adopted appropriate policy measures to promote or stimulate inflow of foreign capital in the form of foreign direct investment with a view to providing and boosting increased and sustainable economic growth and national well being.

“This, however, may not be achievable if the right political, social, cultural and investment environment is not provided. All hands must therefore be on deck if our vision of Nigeria as the economic hub and power house of Africa and indeed the entire world is to be achieved.”

-Vanguardwp_posts