- Rwanda becomes latest African country to offer visa-free access to all Africans
- Continent has bounced back from setbacks due to Covid-19 travel restrictions
Africa is making strides in its visa openness policies boding
well for cross border travel, ease of movement and trade in 2024 and beyond.
The Africa Visa Openness Index 2023, published on Tuesday, reveals much
progress since the seventh edition of the report was published in December
2022.
The
visa openness achieved its highest score ever in 2023, surpassing levels last
seen prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI)
measures the extent to which African countries are open to visitors from other
African countries.
Over
the period 2020-21, massive border closures to curb the spread of COVID-19,
affected land and air travel, with additional restrictions due to screening
measures, bans on gatherings, quarantines and such, causing stagnation in 2022.
In
2023, data from the report shows that 50 countries improved or maintained their
2022 score, with only 4 countries scoring lower. Since the first report was
published in 2016, 36 countries have improved their score on the index.
Forty-two (42) countries extend visa-free entry to citizens from at least 5
other African countries, while 33 countries do so to citizens of at least 10
countries. Four countries - up from three last year, - have eliminated
all visa requirements for African travelers. They are Rwanda, Benin, The
Gambia, and Seychelles.
All key overall matrices have shown improvements in
2023. In 28% of all intra-Africa travel scenarios, African citizens do not
require a visa (an improvement from 27% in 2022 and 20% in 2016). A visa is
still required in 46% of travel scenarios on the continent – down from 47% in
2022 and 55% in 2016.
“It makes it easier for Africans to visit their
families, pursue education and business interests abroad, and discover Africa
as tourists. It also contributes towards the fulfillment of aspirations for a
prosperous, integrated continent where people can develop their potential
unhampered by overly restrictive visa regimes,” noted Jean-Guy Afrika, Acting
Director of the African Development Bank’s Regional Integration Coordination
Office.
Highlights of the 2023 Africa Visa
Openness Index:
The
AVOI reached its highest level in 2023, slightly exceeding the previous
peak of 2020
- The
continent now features 4 champions (Rwanda, Benin, The Gambia and
Seychelles): countries that have abolished visas for citizens from all
African countries
- 24
countries now offer an e-visa, almost three times as many as in 2016
- 15
countries improved their score in 2023, 35 maintained their scores, while
only 4 scored lower
- West African countries continue to lead the rankings: 7 of the continent’s top 10 performers are from West Africa
“As we delve into the eighth edition of the AVOI and
assess progress made since 2016, we take pride in the complete removal of
travel restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the surpassing of
pre-pandemic levels in visa openness,” said Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade,
Vice-President for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery at
the African Development Bank. “Freer movement of people could help galvanize
the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), bringing us closer to the
realization of our shared goal of an integrated Africa where goods, services,
capital, and people move freely,” Akin-Olugbade added.
Rwanda emerges as a new champion in 2023, following a
progressively more liberal visa regime pursued over the past 8 years. In 2016,
the country allowed the citizens of nearly 90% of African countries to obtain a
visa on arrival; with citizens of the remaining countries being able to enter
the country without a visa. It later abolished visa fees for African citizens,
and in 2023, Rwanda dropped visa requirements for the citizens of the entire
continent. “This has eased the burden of travel for the citizens of 35 African
countries that had until recently still required a visa on arrival,” the report
notes. In another positive development, news reports state that Kenya plans to
remove visa requirements for African travelers by the end of 2023.
The report also measures average visa openness within
the AU-recognised Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and finds that average
visa openness has improved in 6 of the 8 RECs over the past year. RECs continue
to be important drivers of visa openness through regional initiatives aimed at
dismantling barriers to the movement of people.
In this respect, the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) scores highest on the regional score and is where
African citizens enjoy the highest levels of freedom to move across borders.
ECOWAS has taken a progressive stance on visa openness for decades, formalizing
it in 1979 with a protocol on the free movement of persons, residence and
establishment.
In addition to boasting the highest average regional
AVOI score on the continent, ECOWAS also records the highest visa-free
reciprocity rate: this is the rate at which the visa-free policies of
individual countries within the REC are reciprocated by its member states. In
97% of travel scenarios, citizens can enter another country within the same REC
without the need for a visa.
What’s next for Africa? Recommendations
and solutions
Despite the many improvements, there are still hurdles
to overcome. In nearly half of country-to-country travel scenarios (46%),
Africans are required to obtain visas ahead of departure to travel to other
African countries. Visa restrictions are notably pronounced in northern and
central Africa. Sustaining the momentum on visa liberalization is crucial for
realizing the vision of the ‘Africa We Want.’ Embracing liberal visa policies
will not only facilitate seamless travel but also contribute significantly to
enhanced trade in goods and services, cross border investment and shared
prosperity.
Some of the recommendations include:
- Implementing
any outstanding commitments on visa-free movement within regional economic
communities,
- Extending
visa-free travel policies to all AU member states, in increments if
necessary,
- Streamlining
and simplifying any remaining visa procedures and associated cross-border
processes,
- Implementing
and expanding e-visa systems that use secure, reliable, mobile-friendly
platforms with a guaranteed response time, for countries requiring a visa
ahead of travel
One key area for which further progress on visa openness is crucial, is the African Continental Free Trade Area(link is external) (AfCFTA). “Freeing the movement of people across Africa’s borders is not only an important objective in its own right, but is also essential to continental integration,” the report notes. With 3 more African Union member states ratifying the AfCFTA in 2023, bringing the total to 47 ratifications, the lasting impact of the negotiations, ratification, and execution of the AfCFTA depends to a significant extent on people’s ability to cross African borders, unhindered by excessive administrative barriers.
“The flourishing of trade in goods is intricately
linked to the liberalization of trade in services, both of which hinge on the
smooth movement of people across Africa’s borders without excessive
bureaucratic hurdles,” said Ambassador Minata Samate Cessouma, Commissioner for
Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development at the African Union
Commission. “We have never been closer to realizing AfCFTA’s potential to
integrate the continent. The African Union is proud of countries’ progress on
freeing the movement of people.”
About the Africa Visa Openness Index:
The Africa Visa Openness Index measures the extent to
which African countries are open to travellers from other African countries.
Published yearly since 2016, the AVOI tracks changes in countries’ scores over
time to show how national policies evolve on the freedom of movement across
Africa.
Download the 2023 Africa Visa Openness Report here. Find out more at www.visaopenness.org
Media Contacts:
African Development Bank:
Amba Mpoke-Bigg,
Communication and External Relations Department,
Email: a.mpoke-bigg@afdb.org
About the Africa Visa Openness Index:
The Africa Visa Openness Index measures the extent to which African countries
are open to travellers from other African countries. Published yearly since
2016, the AVOI tracks changes in countries’ scores over time to show how
national policies evolve on the freedom of movement across Africa. Download the
2023 Africa Visa Openness Report here (https://apo-opa.co/3tdszl9). Find out more
at https://www.VisaOpenness.org/
About the African Development Bank
Group:
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is Africa’s premier development
finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African
Development Bank (ADB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria
Trust Fund (NTF). With country offices in 34 African countries and an external
office in Japan, the AfDB contributes to the economic development and social
progress of all its 54 regional member states in Africa. For more
information: www.AfDB.org