The Angolan Embassy has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening economic ties with Nigeria by launching a new visa collection center in Port Harcourt. This move underscores the embassy’s dedication to facilitating smoother travel and fostering increased business and tourism exchanges between the two nations. By harnessing Nigeria’s vast economic potential, the embassy aims to deepen bilateral cooperation and promote mutual prosperity.
The embassy stated that this initiative was a step towards bolstering business relations with Nigeria.
Dr. Jose Zan, Angolan Ambassador to Nigeria, provided this assurance during the inauguration of the center in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
He noted that both Nigeria and Angola face numerous challenges in accessing Angolan visas from Port Harcourt, thus highlighting the necessity for establishing the center.
The envoy noted that the centre was expected to satisfy the travel needs of the Angolan community resident in the South South and South Eastern part of the country.
“I have been on duty in Nigeria less than a year during which I’m ensuring a better business approach between Nigeria and Angola.”
“One of my targets is to enhance travel experience for the Angolan and Nigerian communities and one of the ways to achieve this is to ensure an easy facilitation in terms of visa procurement.”
“These communities have suffered lots of hurdles shuttling both countries from Port Harcourt; sometimes, when they had to fly to Abuja to procure their visas, they ended up missing business appointments and spending extra cost on hotels.”
That’s why we are here in Port Harcourt, to enhance the speedy procurement of Angolan visas which is easy and also possible within 24 hours.
Mr. Onyemaechi Ejindu, CEO, Akwahelms Ltd, also a partner in the centre, said it was poised to ensure professional strategies that would enhance travel experience to Angola.
He said that the advantage of having the collection centre in Port Harcourt was to help address the difficulties of traveling to Lagos or Abuja to facilitate visa allocations.
”Now that Angolan embassy has brought a visa centre closer to the south and eastern states, we also look forward to collaborating with other airlines that will be linked to the Angolan national airline in terms of connectivity.”
“As we speak, it’s surprising the number of Nigerian/Angolan community that shuttle between Angola and Port Harcourt for various types of businesses.
“This is why we made efforts to establish this centre in order to reach out to those who are into trading and other businesses,” he said.
Ejindu said that Angola, like Nigeria, had lots of attractions and both countries were beginning to appreciate their similarities and also exploiting economic relationships.
According to him, just like Nigeria, Angola is richly endowed with crude oil and other natural deposits like gold, diamond and many others.
