By Nkiruka Nnorom
The Consul-General of Federal Republic of Germany in Lagos, Mr. Daniel Krulls, has said the consulate was putting processes in place to fast-track visa processing for Nigerians, with a target of three-week maximum processing period for all categories of visas.
Krulls made the revelation, yesterday, at a media briefing to outline his plans as the new CG of the Consulate, expressing enthusiasm on potential stronger economic cooperation between Germany and Nigeria.
Currently, he said the Consulate processes over 10,000 visas annually, but planned to scale up the number with the reforms and improved processing system.
According to him, the consulate will expand its office capacity, double visa counters and explore external service providers for specific visa categories, in order to speed up visa processing.
He further stated that the Consulate would also set up a system for verifying academic diplomas and increase the personnel.
He said: “Our main objective as consulate is to be a facilitator, facilitator for people to meet from Germany and Nigeria.
‘’Of course, one of the most important services we can provide is the visa process. We are currently expanding our office capacity, so we will double the number of visa counters. We hope to be able to speed up processing of applications.
“We are currently processing more than 10,000 visas per year, we hope to be able to speed up with new counters and additional personnel.
‘’We envisage that we will also include external service providers for specific visa categories in the near future, and we are currently setting up a system where the verification of documents related to academic diplomas will be established, and this has been a programme that we started two years ago in New Delhi in India, and it helped to speed up decision making regarding visa for study purposes in German.”
Krulls expressed readiness to attract German IT companies to Nigeria to tap into the country’s talent pool.
He stated that Germany was interested in collaborating with Nigeria in the film industry, including co-productions and expanding their presence in Nigeria.
“Language barriers may have limited their presence so far, but there’s room for improvement,” he said.
According to him, Germany recognises the importance of the creative industry in Nigeria, particularly Nollywood.
He noted that his country was willing to support its growth, especially by helping Nigerian creatives gain their royalties from global platforms such as YouTube, Google and Netflix.
On people-to-people exchange, Krulls explained that there were existing exchange programmes between Germany and Nigeria, including a workshop between young movie students from Germany and Benin City, where they collaborate on producing a movie.
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