The United Arab Emirates has lifted the visa ban on Nigerian passport holders.

Briefing State House correspondents on the development, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Muhammad Idris, said the lifting of the ban followed an agreement between the Emirate and Nigeria.

He said Nigerian passport holders wishing to travel to Emirate could now do so without hiccups.

Although he fell short of providing details of the agreement, the Emirates, in October 2022, imposed a visa ban on Nigerian and other African countries passport holders due to the rising rate of criminal activities being experienced.

He also said FEC had directed the Ministry of Budget and National Planning to prepare an amendment to the 2024 budget to address the inconsistencies therein.

The Minister explained that the meeting expressed concern about the hardship shortage of food and inflation, including the rising cost of transportation had engendered, and urged State Governments to speed up the distribution to the poor of the 20 trucks of 1,200 bags of 25 kilogrammes of rice sent to them each for that purpose.

Similarly, he said the meeting urged State Governments to hasten the distribution to farmers the 2.1 million bags of assorted fertiliser sent to them each by the Federal Government to boost agriculture within the rainy season.

The Minister, who said admitted that palliatives being granted by the Federal Government were not the solution to the problem, stressed that it would diffuse the fangs of the hardship.

He also said FEC had instructed the Committee on Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, to expedite action on making available the buses propelled by CNG, conversion kits, and conversion centres to reduce the cost of transportation.

Alhaji Muhammad Idris said President Tinubu had agreed to meet again with the leadership of the organised labour this Thursday, adding that the agreement that would be adopted therefrom would be sent to the National Assembly for legislation.