After taking a long pause and a deep sigh, 32-year-old Blessing Akinloye dropped her makeup kit and her handbag on the floor, and the thought of her failed relocation attempt weighed her down. She had just come back from attending a client who needed a glam for her birthday photoshoot, a common practice amongst Nigerians.
For Blessing, the business she once ran was one of the things she was willing to sacrifice for a new beginning in Canada. She had imagined a different life for herself and her 4-year-old daughter. Instead, the journey ended before it began.
“The agent said he has a work visa for us (Blessing and her daughter) that we need to pay the sum of 10 million Naira into total, but we will not pay everything at once. So after our biometrics, we’ll pay another 2 million Naira.
“He said when the visa is out, we’ll pay the balance. So we made our payments for myself and my daughter. 2 million Naira deposits,” Blessing narrated.
In a recent data release in August by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), compiled by TheCable Index, it is shared that Nigeria ranks fourth among top sources of Canada’s new permanent residents as at Q2 2026.
With 7,360 new Canadian permanent residents, Nigeria comes behind India: 36,910; the Philippines: 11,055; and China: 7,945.
In August 2026, the Government of Canada published on its official website that Honourable Steven MacKinnon, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, announced an expanded air transport agreement with Nigeria.
The expanded agreement allows for direct flights between Canada and Nigeria for the first time, improving connectivity while supporting Canada’s efforts to diversify trade and deepen commercial engagement with one of Africa’s largest economies.
With the desire to join other Nigerians, Blessing made several instalments. She paid more than N10 million to a travel agent, Frank’Klean General Merchants, who promised to secure Canadian visas for her and her daughter.
The agent was based in the United Kingdom but spent periods in Nigeria, and each payment brought Blessing closer, she believed, to the departure date she had been waiting for.
From biometrics to fact tracking, Blessing paid for every stage of the relocation process. Beyond the money, she made psychological sacrifices, and her young daughter was not left out. She made several trips from Lagos to Ibadan, visiting the Canadian embassy.
After spending millions of naira and waiting for several months, Blessing got a visa. It looked like the document that would finally make everything real.
Blessing began preparing for the move.
“I was so happy when the visa got approved. Not knowing that it was fake visa. I closed down my shop, I sold my car, I already ordered for winter jackets for myself and my daughter,” Blessing recounts her experience.
Then she discovered the visa was fake. The money was gone. The business was gone. The car was gone.
“So we had to put the call through to the Canadian embassy. So we called, they said, he applied for visiting visa for us, but there is no working visa. and the application was declined.”
Today, the promised Canadian life remains out of reach, while the more than N10 million she paid has yet to be returned.
“Started calling him for our money. Where’s our passports? Till today, we don’t see passports, we don’t see money. I can never trust any travelling agent again,” she said.
For Blessing, the loss was not simply financial. The fraud reached into the ordinary details of her life, from her business to her car, her daughter’s wellbeing and the plans she had made for the future.
Her story is one of many Nigerians in a country where the desire to leave has created a lucrative market for people who know how badly others want to go.
Twelve years of trying
At his workplace in Ibadan, 35-year-old Adekunle Adeniyi has spent years waiting for an opportunity to leave Nigeria.
His attempts have taken him through applications, embassy appointments and refusals. Each denial closed one route, but not the desire to try again.
“I have been attempting to travel for over 12 years. I have tried countries like the Netherlands, France, Germany and America. But I have been denied multiple times, and it has been difficult,” Adekunle said.
A year ago, another opportunity appeared. A middleman told him he could help him travel to Europe. The proposed fee was N3 million. Adekunle paid N1 million as a deposit.
Yet even after twelve years of trying, Adekunle has not abandoned the idea of travelling. His biggest problem now, he says, is not the desire to leave. It is knowing whom to trust.
He is still looking for what he calls a “good and trustworthy agent.”
The business of leaving
For many Nigerians, migration is not simply about changing location. It is tied to aspirations for better opportunities, higher incomes, education, security and a different future for their families. That aspiration can make a person vulnerable to anyone who appears to possess the key.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Smuggling of Migrants Observatory report shows that 49 per cent of Nigerian migrants finance migration through personal savings, 27 per cent receive financial support from relatives, 23 per cent sell personal assets, and 13 per cent borrow money. Nearly one-third exhaust their money during the journey.
A travel and migration consultant, McDolly Ogundana, widely known as The9jaBoy, said Nigerians fall into the hands of scammers after experiencing frustration with the current socio-economic reality.
“Five-minute research can save people from scam travel agents. Information is very cheap, but out of desperation in seeking a greener pasture, many Nigerians are ready to do anything to travel out,” The9jaBoy said.
Blessing is left trying to recover financially and emotionally from a journey that never began. Adekunle is still searching for a legitimate pathway.
Their experiences reveal the uncomfortable economics of migration fraud: the people being targeted are not necessarily reckless people chasing impossible dreams. Many are ordinary Nigerians making calculated decisions with their savings, businesses and futures.
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