What you need to enter Nigeria with an Ethiopian passport
Ethiopian citizens need an electronic visa for Nigeria, applied for online before the trip.
Last verified: 22 August 2026
Verified practical details
The visa is applied for before your trip, and the procedure is e-Visa (Nigeria Immigration Service). Here are the verified details:
Authorisation system
e-Visa (Nigeria Immigration Service)
A fully digital e-Visa system covering 13 categories (including the Tourism Visa F5A), typically resolved within 24-48 hours. The Nigeria Immigration Service explicitly warns that no third parties are authorised to collect the fee: it must only be processed at evisa.immigration.gov.ng. Since 4 August 2025, manual visa-on-arrival issuance at airports has been discontinued, and since 1 May 2025 the electronic landing/exit card (lecard.immigration.gov.ng) is also mandatory for every traveller. The F5A tourism visa is valid for 90 days from issuance, authorising a single-entry stay of 30 days.
Apply on the official site →Visa, e-Visa, or electronic authorisation? What's the difference →
Fee
The official evisa.immigration.gov.ng portal does not show the fee until an application is started, and neither the Immigration Service nor the Nigerian embassies we checked publish it, so we do not give a figure. It is paid online by card at the end of the application, and the Immigration Service warns that no third party is authorised to collect it.
Processing time
24-48 hours under normal conditions; up to 5 business days during high-demand periods (e.g. the December travel season).
Required documents
- Approved e-Visa before travel, processed exclusively at evisa.immigration.gov.ng.
- Electronic landing/exit card (e-Landing/Exit Card) at lecard.immigration.gov.ng.
- International Certificate of Vaccination against yellow fever (Yellow Card) for every traveller over 9 months of age.
Transit rules
Authorised stay of 30 days per single entry under the Tourism Visa (F5A), within a 90-day visa validity from issuance.
More Nigeria rules
They don't depend on your passport, so they are on the Nigeria page:
Official portal: https://immigration.gov.ng. Destination data verified on 22 August 2026. Sources: immigration.gov.ng (Nigeria Immigration Service: official Tourism Visa F5A page, with 90-day validity and a 30-day single-entry stay; notice of the e-Landing/Exit Card system, mandatory since 1 May 2025, and the end of visa on arrival since 4 August 2025; press release of 5 July 2025 on the amnesty for expired visas); evisa.immigration.gov.ng (official e-Visa portal, with the warning about unauthorised third parties collecting the fee; it does not show the price without starting an application, and the fee appears in no official source we checked, so no figure is given); von.gov.ng (Voice of Nigeria, the public broadcaster, 1 October 2025: Immigration Service statement signed by its spokesperson, Akinsola Akinlabi, with the overstay sanctions in force since the amnesty ended); customs.gov.ng (Nigeria Customs Service "Passenger's Concessions" page, web.archive.org copy of 31 July 2023: alcohol and tobacco allowances); Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 (USD 10,000 declaration threshold) (checked 29 September 2026).
This pair in context
In the other direction, citizens of Nigeria need an electronic visa to enter Ethiopia. See the Nigeria → Ethiopia page.
Of the 18 passports from Eastern Africa that VisaRadar tracks, for travel to Nigeria 1 enter visa-free and 17 need a prior authorisation or a visa on arrival. Same result as Ethiopia: Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya and Madagascar.
With a passport from Ethiopia, in the rest of Western Africa you can enter Benin and Gambia visa-free; you need a prior authorisation or a visa on arrival for Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo; you need a visa for Liberia, Mali and Niger.
A passport from Ethiopia ranks 183 of 199 in the VisaRadar passport ranking and reaches 40 of 198 destinations without applying for a visa in advance.
Counts from the same requirements matrix behind this page's verdict, using the UN M49 subregions.
Frequently asked questions
Do Ethiopian citizens need a visa for Nigeria?
Yes, but it's processed online before you travel (e-visa), no consulate visit required.
How long does it take to get the entry permit?
24-48 hours under normal conditions; up to 5 business days during high-demand periods (e.g. the December travel season).
What currency is used in Nigeria?
Nigerian Naira (NGN).
What do Ethiopian passport holders need for the countries near Nigeria?
With a passport from Ethiopia, in the rest of Western Africa you can enter Benin and Gambia visa-free; you need a prior authorisation or a visa on arrival for Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo; you need a visa for Liberia, Mali and Niger.
Related pages
See Nigeria requirements for other passports →
Informational only. Always verify requirements with the official embassy or consulate before you travel.