The UK government announced that fully vaccinated travellers from Nigeria can travel to England without needing a pre-departure covid test from the 11th of October.
This was disclosed in a statement by the British High Commission, viewed by Nairametrics, in Abuja on Thursday.
They also revealed that the policy includes Nigerians vaccinated with the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Modern and Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
This policy applies to those fully vaccinated with Astra Zeneca (including Covidshield), Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen (Johnson and Johnson)).
“Fully vaccinated means that you have had a complete course of an approved vaccine at least 14 days before you arrive in England.
“The day you had your final dose does not count as one of the 14 days. You must be able to prove that you have been fully vaccinated under a vaccination programme and have a valid proof of vaccination recognised by the British Government (for Nigeria, the certificates with valid QR codes as issued by Nigeria’s Primary Healthcare Development Agency are recognised),” they said.
For Nigerians who are not fully vaccinated, they are advised to take a pre-departure Covid test 3 days before travel, book and pay for day 2 and day 8 covid tests to be taken on arrival and complete a passenger locator form, anytime in the 48 hours before arrival.
Ben Llewellyn-Jones, Acting High Commissioner to Nigeria said, “The exemption of fully vaccinated Nigerians travelling to the Uk from providing a pre-departure test and self-isolating for 10 days, is a very welcome development.
“To make this happen, we have been working closely with Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency on recognising Nigeria’s vaccine certification, which we have now done.”
Recall Nairametrics had earlier reported that High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, reacted to claims that the United Kingdom does not recognize the Covid-19 vaccines being administered in Nigeria. Laing debunked such statements, describing them as completely untrue and to be disregarded.
“The UK strongly supports the work of the Nigerian health authorities and Nigeria’s vaccination campaign, and strongly encourages all eligible residents in Nigeria to get vaccinated. Only once we are all vaccinated can we end the spread of COVID-19.
“I would like to emphasise that any statements that COVID-19 vaccines administered in Nigeria are not approved by the UK are completely untrue,” she said, citing that the UK recognises the Oxford-Astra Zeneca, Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines used in Nigeria, irrespective of where they are manufactured.
A report revealed that 40% of Nigerians say in the unregulated informal sector, they are being owed wages.
The report, which was compiled by socioeconomic research firm, SBM intelligence, was released on Thursday. It cited responses from 3,416 respondents surveyed in a study on delayed wages in the informal sector in the country.
The respondents also cited the prevalence of in-kind payments, limited opportunities, loose terms of reference for work, transfer of risk to employees and others, in the sector.
“Nigeria’s informal sector is largely unregulated, making many malpractices go unnoticed, tucked away from the public discourse, and often without consequence.
“Of the 3,416 respondents surveyed in our study on delayed wages in the informal sector in the country, 40% of the respondents were owed wages while 60% were not owed.
The states with the highest percentages of informal workers who are owed wages are Ondo, Abia, Ebonyi, Plateau, Imo, Bauchi, Enugu, Oyo, Ekiti and Benue. Informal sector workers who responded to our survey were owed salaries in all the states surveyed except for Bayelsa, Sokoto and Yobe.
The reports revealed that states with the highest responses of yes were Ondo (94%), Abia (92%), Plateau (84%) Ebonyi (87%), Imo(80%) Oyo, Bauchi and Enugu (79%)
On months being owed, 43% were owed between 1-3 months, while 15% were owed 7-10 months and 5% being owed 16-20 months salary,” they said.
The major deterrent to placing demand for owed wages/salary according to respondents is a concern with losing out on the good relationship built with their principal/employers. Other deterrents are the prevalence of in-kind payments, limited opportunities, loose terms of reference for work, transfer of risk to employees, parallel earnings outside employees’ salaries, and informal arrangements.
SBM also warns that the unavailability of regulation in the informal sector poses problems for employees, who are most times unaware of labour laws.
“There is the added challenge of a lack of valid contractual agreement between employers and employees, largely because employment relations are brokered and built on the foundation of family or friends, leaving room for abuses by employers and increasing the vulnerability of employees to irregular payments.
“For such abuses to be addressed, labour laws and regulatory bodies would have to be established to ensure that the rights of employees in the informal sector are protected. Even though labour laws exist in Nigeria, they do not appear to be remotely applied to the informal sector, largely because the sector is unsupervised by unions and regulatory bodies,”
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