The United Kingdom issued some 132,000 visas to Nigerians in the first half of the year, Jonny Baxter, British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, told the News Agency of Nigeria.
He revealed the number in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Thursday.
Mr Baxter, however, could not readily give the total number of applications received from Nigerians during the period.
“In the first half of the year, we granted approximately 132,000 visas, and those are all sorts of visas which include visit, work and study visas.
“In the previous full year before that, we issued about 324,000. The UK, in that year, issued about three million visas, and of those three million visas, 324,000 were issued to Nigerians, which is about 10 percent.
“ If you think about Nigeria’s population, relative to the world, that’s actually a higher proportion of Nigerians taking up those visas and coming to the UK which I view is a good thing.
“The UK has a huge number of Nigerian students in the country, and in terms of foreign students in the UK, Nigeria is second only to India.
“We welcome and value the many Nigerians that we have coming to the UK to study or settle, as long as they are coming through legal routes, and it is important that the country’s rules are followed and respected,” he said.
Baxter reiterated that change in the rules of students bringing dependents was a necessity, based on an international challenge.
“ In 2019, Nigerian students going to the UK brought in 1,500 dependents. By 2022/2023, that number had risen to 52,000 dependents, that’s a massive increase.
“ Nigeria is not unique, as it has happened for many other countries and indeed, this change on the dependents is an international challenge.
“It is not surprising that a country, Britain in this case, that is facing that kind of change to the numbers of people coming in the country, wants to look at the policy and would want to change and amend their policy.
“This is definitely not a case of saying that we don’t want students to come, we definitely want students still to come, and the new policy would come in in January 2024.”
