The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) generated a total of N55 billion naira as revenue in 2016, the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has shown.
A breakdown of revenue generated by the agency in 2016 showed it over N36 billion was gotten locally while $56 million was made offshore.
The report which was released Friday, also showed that about 7 million Nigerians left the country between 2013 and 2016.
Out of the number, a total of 1.7 million Nigerians traveled outside the country in 2013.
Although the number of citizens who traveled out of the country reduced to 1.3 million in 2014, the number, however, witnessed a geometric increase to 2.6 million in 2015.
The figure took a dip in 2016 as about 1.1 million persons traveled out of the country, making it the least number recorded in the last four years.
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During the same period, over 6.4 million Nigerians returned to the country, the NBS report also indicated.
However, a total of 14, 561 Nigerians were deported from abroad between the period under review while only 32 foreigners were deported from the country.
Surprisingly, the report ranked South Africa as the African country with the highest number of visa applications seeking entry into Nigeria.
In 2016 alone, over 6,027 South Africans applied for visa seeking entry into Nigeria, while India topped countries with the most number of visa applications seeking entry into the country with over 17,000 applications.
This 2017NBS immigration report is coming a day after it released a report showing that< over N55 billion is spent on bribes annually in the country.
