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AFCON 2023: Nigerians could be denied entry to Cote d’Ivoire over invalid documents
By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde
Nigerians planing to travel to Cote d’Ivoire for next month’s African Cup of Nations (AFCON) will have to ensure that they have their traveling documents up to date to gain access to the hot country.
Nigerians holding the ECOWAS Travel Certificates and going for the AFCON are certain to be turned back from entering Cote d’Ivoire, according to sportsvillagesquare.com.
For those holding travelling passports, they also have to ensure that their document still have up to six-month validity period as at January 2024.
Citizens of the three time African champions ordinarily don’t need visa to enter Cote d’Ivoire as nationals of the Economic of West African States (ECOWAS) since inception in 1975 as all they needed was traveling documents.
Robert Akpenpuun, an immigration officer and former protocol officer of the NFF who is now an Immigration Attaché at the Nigerian Embassy in Cote d’Ivoire states that the normal ECOWAS Travel Certificate which most Nigerian travelers carry when they travel along West Africa is not acceptable in Cote d’Ivoire.
According to him, the document is honoured in Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana, the road route most Nigerians will take while going to Cote d’Ivoire.
Nigerians are certain to be denied entry into Cote d’Ivoire because the travel certificate is not honoured by the Ivorian immigration officers as it is not biometric.
Akpenpuun informed that the two acceptable travel document into Cote d’Ivoire are the E-Passport and the newly introduced Enhanced E- Passport which is being issued by the Nigerian Immigration Service offices in Lagos, Ogun, Rivers , Kano and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Added to the E- Passport, Akpenpumm also advised Nigerians to ensure that they carry their yellow vaccination card which must be up to date.
The yellow card is compulsory for entry into Cote d’Ivoire, Akpenpuun remarked.
He said that the acting Nigerian ambassador will document and pass the advisory to the Nigeria Football Federation.
Nigerians traveling by road only have to move with a valid means of identification and yellow card vaccination card to gain access to Ivory Coast.
The recent revelation means Nigerians willing to travel to Ivory Coast for AFCON will have to get their documentations right in order not to be denied entry into the Elephants nation.
