The United States is considering sweeping visa restrictions on citizens of 36 additional countries, including Nigeria, in what would represent the most significant expansion of the U.S. travel ban regime since President Donald Trump returned to power in January. This was revealed through an exclusive State Department memo obtained by The Washington Post, underscoring Washington’s aggressive posturing on global migration control and foreign cooperation on national security protocols.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and a critical U.S. partner in energy, trade, and regional security, now finds itself among a large cohort of nations—including Egypt, Ghana, and Djibouti—under new scrutiny.
Inside the Memo: The New Metrics of Acceptability
The memo on U.S. Visa Ban, personally signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was dispatched to U.S. diplomats across the world on Saturday. It gives governments of the 36 listed countries 60 days to align with new vetting, documentation, and repatriation benchmarks, or risk facing full or partial travel bans.
The State Department’s grievances include:
- Failure to produce reliable identity or civil documents, often due to fragmented or fraudulent government systems;
- High numbers of visa overstays by citizens of these countries in the U.S.;
- Provision of citizenship-for-investment schemes with limited or no residency requirements, which Washington views as security liabilities;
- Alleged patterns of antisemitic or anti-American activity linked to nationals residing in or traveling through the U.S.
Countries demonstrating willingness to accept deported third-country nationals or sign onto “safe third country” agreements might escape full sanctions.
As of this writing, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not issued an official response, though sources in Abuja confirm that high-level inter-ministerial consultations are already underway.
Why Nigeria Is in the Crosshairs
Nigeria’s inclusion on this list of prospective U.S. Visa Ban may surprise some given its deep military, energy, and diplomatic engagements with Washington. But insiders point to several persistent concerns:
- Identity system weaknesses and fraudulent documentation scandals, despite the recent rollout of a national digital ID initiative;
- A complex and poorly enforced visa and immigration enforcement framework;
- Historical tension over deportation agreements, with Nigeria sometimes accused of slow or selective repatriation processes.
This development also emerges against the backdrop of Nigeria’s strong condemnation of Israel’s recent military action in Iran—a move which, though diplomatically principled, may have further strained Abuja’s standing in certain Washington corridors.
Context and Continuity: A Ban Rebranded
This isn’t the first time Nigeria has faced this kind of scrutiny under a Trump administration.
In 2020, Nigeria was partially placed under visa restrictions by President Trump’s Proclamation 9983, primarily affecting immigration and diversity visa applicants. That order was lifted under President Biden but now appears to be returning in expanded form. What is notable this time is the scale and legal retooling: the ban is framed not as ideological, but administrative—based on “deficiencies” in vetting systems.
Critics, however, are unconvinced.
Democratic lawmakers and human rights advocates have swiftly labeled the new push “xenophobic” and “discriminatory,” arguing that the disproportionate targeting of African, Caribbean, and Muslim-majority nations is a thinly veiled reprise of Trump’s earlier travel bans.
Global and Regional Implications
The potential fallout from these expanded restrictions is massive:
- Student visas, business travel, and family reunification could be jeopardized for thousands of Nigerians;
- Remittance flows, which contribute billions to the Nigerian economy, may dip if diaspora connections face bottlenecks;
- Security and counterterrorism cooperation—where Nigeria serves as a linchpin in West Africa—could be tested if diplomatic relations sour.
Furthermore, countries such as Ghana, Senegal, and Ethiopia—also on the watchlist—have already begun exploring multilateral coordination to push back diplomatically against what they perceive as unilateral, punitive policymaking.
BRANDECONOMY Takeaway
The fresh U.S. Visa Ban list consideration isn’t just about passports—it’s about power, policy, and perception. Nigeria must now walk a fine line: demonstrate rapid institutional reform to satisfy U.S. benchmarks while asserting its sovereignty and regional leadership. At the same time, Washington must reckon with the message it sends by lumping together key African allies with authoritarian or crisis-ridden regimes.
The next 60 days will be pivotal—not just for visa policy, but for U.S.-Africa relations in the age of “America First 2.0.”
Countries on the Potential Ban List Include:
Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Angola, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Senegal, Sudan, Liberia, Mauritania, Uganda, and 25 others.
