17,000 Chinese legally resident in Nigeria – Immigration boss

The number of Chinese citizens
regularised and legally residing in Lagos
and Ogun zone of the Nigeria Immigration
service is about 17,00 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."