Abuja – Nigeria’s foreign minister on Wednesday bemoaned the US’s impending expansion of its travel ban, saying it would hinder potential trade deals with West Africa, particularly in rare earth minerals and energy.
The United States is considering extending its travel ban to 36 more countries, marking a dramatic potential expansion of entry restrictions to nearly 1.5 billion people, according a person who has seen the memo.
Nigeria, the most populous in Africa, is included in the list of potentially targeted countries.
Two West African nations, Togo and Sierra Leone, have already been slapped by President Donald Trump’s earlier travel ban on 12 countries.
“Nigeria’s current leadership poses a threat to global security. No responsible nation should keep its doors wide open to corruption and chaos.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced plans to ban visa issuance to Nigerians, citing widespread corruption, rising fraud…. pic.twitter.com/5m6Itj4dzR
— Royalblogofficial (@royalblogoffici) June 15, 2025
“We would like to do deals with the US, but visa restrictions are non-tariff barriers to deals,” Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told his colleagues from the West African bloc ECOWAS, at a meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
He said the “apparent recent decision by the government of the United States to include all ECOWAS countries in its visa restrictions” would be “most unfortunate if it comes to pass, because we are a region of opportunities ready to do deals.
“We possess critical minerals and even rare earths.”
Speaking at the meeting, which precedes a weekend summit of heads of state of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Tuggar added that the region is “also a strategic alternative to more distant and politically divergent energy producers.”
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Source: AFP
