The immediate past Ambassador of France to Nigeria, Ms. Emmanuelle Blatmann, has called on prospective Nigerian students to look in the direction of France.
Speaking to journalists before her departure, the envoy informed that not only do most schools in France charge less tuition fees than the United States of America and the United Kingdom, there are several courses in English language.
Blatmann also eliminated the fear of visa procurement, stressing that France is indeed, ready to accommodate as many as are qualified to study in the country.
“Request is very low because people don’t think about France. It could be due to language barrier but as I said, we have over 1000 curriculum in English. That is why we are trying to lobby that Africans should study in France.
“We really want Nigerian students to come. We have 20,000 Nigerians leaving in France now; seven years ago, we were only 10,000.”
On the issue of period of visa appointment, she said: “That is something I also want to note that I have achieved. When I arrived here, it took months and some days to get appointment for visa but now, you can get visa appointment, depending on the kind of visa you want, in two days.
“I think we have made a lot of improvement. We are issuing much more visas now. Last year, we not only went back to the 2019 period but we actually increased the number of visas delivered. We are the EU country that deliver the most visas.
“We received over 50,000 visa requests last year. A total of 18,000 for Abuja and 22,000 for Lagos.
“For the students’ visa, there is a procedure. I don’t think we have high refusal rate. Out of the 50,000 general requests received in 2023, two/third was granted visas. I also don’t think that student visas are more than 1,000 annually”, she added.
