It’s super simple. Apply online for the e-visa. The biggest thing we found is to ensure your bank account has sufficient funds to sustain you for your trip. They ask for six months of bank statements. If your account is healthy, you’ll be fine.

You get issued the e-visa and before you cross you need to fill out the landing card online. It’s explained during the process. We found it better to have both the landing card and the e-visa printed in good quality.

First, you present your yellow fever card at the health desk and they will ask you for your cholera and meningitis vaccinations. It’s a thing, and despite it not really making sense, these are their rules so be prepared for it. You can either pay for the stamps or get the jabs right there and then. There is also a health check on the road just before you cross the bridge to Badagry, so be prepared for round two if you don’t have the stamps.

Once you have navigated the health check, you complete the Benin formalities. We needed a copy of our Benin visa and the process took time. It actually took longer to leave Benin than to enter Nigeria the last two times I crossed.

Nigerian immigration will check your passport and your e-visa, and then you will be taken to an office behind the immigration desks to have the landing card scanned. We printed ours and that made life easier, but it should still work on your phone. They need to scan the QR code you receive at the bottom of the landing card. Once that’s done, you go back to the front desks and do the biometrics.

Then you leave. There is a boom gate at the end of the compound and they might ask you a question or two.

Then you hit the road to Lagos, but be prepared for loads of checkpoints from the police, immigration, road safety, etc. It’s mostly a quick chat and they let you continue.

If you are travelling on public transport, the car park is on the right-hand side as you leave through the gates, and there are loads of cars, shared taxis, and minibuses here ready to grab you and take you on your onward journey.

There is a great bureau just before you cross into the border area on the right-hand side. The best rates for getting naira were for XOF, but the euro and dollar rates aren’t bad, and you can trust that you won’t get ripped off.

This border has really been cleaned up. It’s a joint border post and there aren’t the hordes of touts that used to make it a minefield. You can do the whole process on your own and we continually find everyone there helpful.