Nigeria grants visa-free access to St. Kitts & Nevis citizens

By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

ABUJA—Nigeria has granted visa-free entree to citizens of St. Kitts & Nevis (SKN), effectual September 26, 2025, making SKN the archetypal state extracurricular ECOWAS and beyond Africa to bask specified privileges.

The determination has been described arsenic the instauration of a caller commercialized and mobility corridor linking Africa and the Caribbean.

The breakthrough followed the Afri-Caribbean Investment Summit (AACIS ’25) hosted successful Abuja earlier this twelvemonth by Aquarian Consult Limited (ACL). ACL’s Managing Director, Aisha Maina, said the improvement underscored the powerfulness of strategical facilitation.

“This visa waiver is much than diplomacy; it is astir opening doors for trade, investment, and taste exchange. At ACL, we are arrogant to person played a relation successful turning dialog into action,” she stated.

Until now, Nigeria’s visa-free argumentation applied lone wrong ECOWAS, with Cameroon and Chad arsenic the lone African exceptions extracurricular the bloc. Covering ordinary, official, and diplomatic passports, the waiver is regarded arsenic a bold measurement to fortify trade, investment, taste exchange, and people-to-people ties crossed the Atlantic.

The statement builds connected increasing relations betwixt some nations. In March 2025, soon aft AACIS, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu met with SKN’s Prime Minister, Terrance Drew, successful Abuja to deepen bilateral cooperation. That aforesaid month, a historical non-stop Abuja–Basseterre charter formation carried 120 Nigerian delegates, establishing the archetypal nonstop aerial nexus betwixt West Africa and the Caribbean.

Relations person since expanded into agribusiness, technology, and the originative economy. The Afri-Caribbean Business Expo successful Basseterre showcased concern opportunities, portion bilateral talks successful Abuja betwixt Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, and SKN’s Agriculture Minister, Samal Duggins, precocious collaboration connected nutrient information and commercialized facilitation.

The visa waiver reflects Nigeria’s broader argumentation displacement toward targeted bilateral partnerships beyond Africa. Analysts enactment that extending visa-free privileges to SKN marks a strategical measurement toward diversifying Nigeria’s trade, tourism, and diplomatic ties, with ACL’s facilitation nether Aisha Maina’s enactment positioning the steadfast arsenic a cardinal operator of Afri-Caribbean relations.

The station Nigeria grants visa-free entree to St. Kitts & Nevis citizens appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.