The United Kingdom said it has issued 132,000 visas to Nigerians in the first half of this year, Jonny Baxter, British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, told the News Agency of Nigeria at the weekend.
Baxter, however, could not readily give the total number of applications received from Nigerians during the period.
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He said: “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 previous year, we issued about 324,000 visas. The UK, in that year, issued about three million visas, out of which 324,000 were issued to Nigerians, which is about 10 per cent.
“If you think about Nigeria’s population, relative to the world, that’s actually a higher proportion taking up those visas and coming to the UK, which, in my view, is a good thing.”
“The UK has a huge number of Nigerian students in the country. In terms of foreign students, Nigeria is second only to India.
“We welcome and value Nigerians that have come 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.”