Luanda - A Visa Application Centre in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt to prevent citizens from traveling to Abuja and Lagos is to be opened on Tuesday, as part of activities to mark April 4, the Day of Peace and National Reconciliation in Angola.
According to a press release, the centre, which is a partnership between the Angolan Embassy in Nigeria and the company Akwa Helmes International Limited (AHIL), will be able to deal with visa request, attract investment, support the oil and gas industry, as well as promote tourism.
The services will extend to hotel bookings and the sale of airline tickets and connections to destinations operated by the national carrier TAAG.
The governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara is the special guest of Ambassador José Bamoquina Zau to witness the opening of the centre for economic, cultural and tourist ties between Angola and Nigeria.
The Port Harcourt city of the Rivers State, with around 10 million inhabitants, is wedged between the vast Niger Delta where the main oil and petrochemical industries are concentrated, as well as two large public refineries, two seaports, universities and science and technology institutes.
This is where most of the businessmen and technicians from the oil and gas industries operating in Angola come from.
The region has Nigeria's second largest port and a narrow gauge eastern railway project stretching over 2,000 kilometres to connect Port Harcourt with northern Maiduguri, Borno State, passing through 12 states and numerous major cities in Nigeria's eastern, central and northern regions.
Political and diplomatic relations between Angola and Nigeria date back to 1975. Both countries are members of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (PSC-AU) and the Gulf of Guinea Commission (GGC).
The two states maintain excellent bilateral cooperation relations, particularly in the political, diplomatic, defence, security, oil, education, culture and transport fields.
In recent years, the value of Angola's exports of goods to Nigeria has been USD 5.6, while imports have been 16.8 USD, which corresponds to a negative trade balance of around USD 11.2 million.
VIC/MRA/jmc
