Nigeria waives COVID-19 test for vaccinated travellers

The Federal Government has removed COVID-19 PCR test for fully vaccinated passengers flying into Nigeria.

For outbound passengers, the government has requested that Nigerians travelling out of the country be vaccinated against COVID -19 and ensure compliance with the COVID-19 requirements of their destination or transit countries.

Also fully vaccinated passengers arriving in Nigeria will not be required to carry out post-arrival PCR tests or a Rapid Antigen Test upon arriving in the country.

Also, crew members operating regional or international flights into or out of Nigeria who are fully vaccinated are no longer required to travel along with a negative COVID-19 PCR test result.

These were contained in the revised Travel Protocol released at the weekend and signed by Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation/chairman, Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19.

The Federal government said the protocol was a revision of the Travel Protocol released on November 29, 2021, interim travel guidelines for passengers arriving in Nigeria.

The document stated among other guidelines that children below the age of 18 years will be accorded the same privileges as persons who are fully vaccinated;

It, however, stated that in-bound passengers who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated for COVID-19 shall take a COVID-19 PCR test 48 hours before departure and undergo Days 2 and 7 post-arrival PCR tests at their own cost.

The document, however, explained that passengers who are not able to show evidence of full vaccination will be treated as unvaccinated/partially vaccinated under this protocol.

According to the document, “full vaccination for COVID-19 refers to a person who received two doses of any of the following COVID-19 vaccines at least two weeks before the date of travel: Pfizer/ Bio-Ntech, Moderna, Oxford Astra-Zeneca, Sputnik, Sinopharm, Sinovac, COVAXIN, COVOVAX, Nuvaxovid or persons who received a single dose of these vaccines are considered not fully vaccinated: A single dose of any of the following COVID-19 vaccines, Jensen (Johnson and Johnson), Sputnik Light.”

The document added, “all in-bound passengers must register via the online Nigeria International Travel Portal (NITP– https://nitp.ncdc.gov.ng) while it encouraged all passengers travelling out of Nigeria to have evidence of full vaccination against COVID-19, comply with the COVID-19 guidelines of their destinations or transit countries; and familiarise themselves with the COVID-19 travel requirements of their destinations and transit countries before embarking on their journeys.”

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.