…as Nigeria rises to 6th position on visa progress
The Africa Visa Openness Index, an index which measures the extent to which each country in Africa is open to visitors from other African countries has released report showing countries Nigerian passport holders can visit without visa and countries that offer visa-on-arrival.
According to the report, 17 countries that offer Nigerians entry without visas include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Seychelles and Sierra Leone
The report reveals that 36 countries offer Nigerian passport holders visa-on-arrival. These include Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Djibouti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon and Kenya.
Others include Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
According to the report, Benin, The Gambia, Rwanda and Seychelles offer visafree access to all Africans. In 28 percent of country‑to-country travel scenarios within Africa, African citizens do not need a visa to cross the border, a marked improvement over 20 percent in 2016.
In 2024, 26 African countries — 44 percent of the continent — offered an evisa for Africans, up from nine African countries — 17 percent of the continent — in 2016.
Thirty nine countries have improved their score since 2016. Of the 10 that have most progressed, six are in West Africa, two are in East Africa, and two are in Southern Africa.
Nine top‑20 performers are low‑income countries; three of them are landlocked. Another nine top‑20 performers are lower‑middle-income countries. Lower‑income countries continue to make progress.
Over the period 2016 to 2024, 39 countries score higher now than they did in 2016, a reflection of overall progress towards easing travel between African countries.
Over the same period, five countries have had the most improved scores on the AVOI: Benin (moved rank from 31 to 1), Ethiopia (from 46 to 19), Sierra Leone (from 32 to 13), Nigeria (from 25 to 6) and Gambia (from 18 to 1). Some are now joint top‑ranked countries on the AVOI, a commendable achievement given the individual progress on embracing visa openness that they have made in recent years.
The most striking observation about changes in visa openness since 2016 is that there has been a significant increase in the number of intra‑Africa travel scenarios where African citizens are no longer subject to a visa requirement concerning travel and from 20 per cent in 2016 to 28 per cent in 2024, translating to a 40 percent increase in visa‑free travel over the past nine years.
These positive developments are illustrated in the first indicator (see graphic below), and while the rounded percentage remains unchanged, closer scrutiny of the data reveals that the number of visa‑free travel scenarios between African countries has in fact increased to 803 (nine were added over the past year), resulting in the highest number of visa‑free travel possibilities to date.
The second indicator relates to the situation where a visa can be obtained on arrival. While nominally unchanged since 2016 but with a slight decrease over 2023, this metric is nevertheless representative of progress that has been made on easing travel.
In terms of scoring, two opposing, yet often complementary developments underlie this metric. On the one hand, countries ease travel by moving from a visa‑required (ahead of travel) policy to a visa‑on-arrival, thereby easing the travel experience and contributing to a higher percentage score in this indicator. On the other hand, countries relax their visa policy by moving from a visa‑on-arrival to a visa‑free policy, thus lowering the applicable percentage.
The third indicator measures travel scenarios where the visa process must be completed ahead of travel. A lower percentage of travel scenarios to which such policies apply (55 percent in 2016 down to 47 percent in 2024) is a positive development.
While this is an important improvement overall, there has also been a small increase over the past year in instances where a visa‑required policy is being applied.
The overall percentage remains considerably high, notwithstanding progress that has been made, and leaves much room for further evolution. While 26 African countries – close to half of the continent – offer an e‑visa that can be obtained ahead of travel, this issue is not directly captured by the scoring, as it still requires a visa before travelling.
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