US Travel Ban: Nigeria to comply with US new Visa Rules

President Muhammadu Buhari said he wants Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, to have "productive relations" with the US.

He has already appointed a minister to lead a committee to study and address the new visa requirements.

Citizens from Counties like Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar are also barred from certain types of US visas.

People from these countries will, however, still be able to visit the US as tourists.

Nigeria being the giant in Africa. In 2018, the US issued more than 8,000 immigration visas to citizens of Nigeria - twice as many as all the other five nations combined.

That same year, just over 2,000 were issued to Sudanese nationals, 290 to Tanzanians, and just 31 to Eritreans.

"These countries, for the most part, want to be helpful but for a variety of different reasons simply failed to meet those minimum requirements that we laid out," acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told reporters on Friday.

New US rules will come into effect on 21 February but will not apply to official, business and tourism visas, Mr Buhari's office said in a statement on Saturday.