Visa Openness Index: Nigeria Ranks 7th In Africa

Nigeria was placed on the  7th position  on the Africa Visa Openness Index Report jointly released by the African Development Bank and the African Union Commission this week.

Nigeria came in 7th place with a score of 0.864 points ahead of Uganda, Guinea-Bissau, Cabo Verde, Togo, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, and others.
The report measures the ease of travel between African countries, noting what countries are open to visitors from other African countries. The report checks each country’s visa requirements to show which countries on the continent facilitate travel to their territory.

The data for the report was collected between June and July 2021, relying on the International Air Transport Association and countries’ official websites.The Index shows that 36 countries have improved or maintained their Visa Openness Index score since 2016.
Benin, Gambia, and Seychelles were 2021’s top performers, according to the report, as all three countries offered visa-free access to all African visitors, as they did in 2020.

“Despite the lockdowns necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, many African countries continue to signal visa openness to the citizens of other countries on the continent: The top 10 countries’ average score on the Africa Visa Openness Index rose to 0.904 from 0.902 in 2020,” the report said.
The report states its intentions in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the Protocol on the Free Movement of People and encourages the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, with a market of 1.3 billion people.

It notes that over half of the top 20 performers have ratified the AfCFTA Agreement, signed up to the Single African Air Transport Market, and signed the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons. Only Rwanda has ratified the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons.

In the words of  Jean-Guy Afrika, the Officer-In-Charge of the Regional Integration Coordination Office at the African Development Bank,“By supporting the free movement of people, we make it easier for Africans to do business in Africa. Free movement of people, especially workers, could help plug skills gaps, while enabling countries to fix skills mismatches in their labour markets”.