Updated: March 1, 2021
The number of Nigerians applying for European visas dropped by 5.7% between 2016 and 2017, according to the latest official Schengen visa application statistics released by SchengenVisaInfo.com.
In 2016, 88,714 Nigerians applied for Schengen visas but only 83,467 Schengen visa applications were filed by Nigerians in 2017, a drop of about 5.7%.
[read_more id="2" more="Read full article" less="Read less"]
During that period, Italy and France topped the list as favorite destinations for Nigerians, but both countries rejected more than 50 percent of applicants, a possible explanation for the drop in visa applications.
In 2017, the statistics show that 21,754 Nigerians applied for visas to visit France out of 83,467 Schengen visa applications. That same year, 12,590 visa applications were recorded by Nigerians planning to visit Italy.
That was still a drop from the year before in 2016 when Italy recorded 26,958 Schengen visa applications and France had 19,211 Schengen uniform visa applications.
But how many Nigerians were granted visas?
The French consulate located in Lagos in 2017 granted 9,962 Schengen uniform visas, including 2,932 visas or 29.4% of the total grants being MEV visas.
The statistics show that despite granting thousands of visas, the French Embassy in Lagos was not really that generous.
As seen from the statistics, 11,079 applicants at French consulate were denied visas for various reasons.
“In percentage terms, uniform not-issued visas shared slightly more than half (50.9%) of total visa applications in 2017 recorded at the French embassy. To really understand how high is this number let us recall that the German embassy during that time has received 11,142 Schengen uniform visa applications,” said SchengenVisaInfo.com.
Italian consulate located in the capital Lagos too granted 3,960 Schengen uniform visas to Nigerian applicants in 2017 but rejected 8,522 such applications or 67.7% of the total applications, one of the highest rejection rate among all Schengen consulates in this country.
The other Italian and Spanish consulates in Abuja had the lightest load of Schengen visa applications during 2017; 174 applications registered in Italian embassy and 141 at the Spanish one.
[/read_more]
