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More African travellers able to travel visa-free across continent
Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Uganda is ranked seventh on the continent when it comes to allowing in African visitors, according to the 2020 Africa Visa Openness Index.
The East African nation is only behind Seychelles, Benin, Gambia, Senegal, Ghana and Rwanda when it comes to welcoming African visitors.
A visa is an endorsement –through a certificate or stamp in a travel document— showing that a particular visitor is allowed to enter a country for a specific length of time and for specific activities.
The Africa Visa Openness Index measures the extent to which African countries are open to travelers from other African countries when it comes to visas by looking at what they ask of the citizens when they travel into their territories.
The index tracks changes in the country-scores over time to show which countries are making improvements that support people’s freer movement across Africa.
According to the index published by the African Union Commission and African Development Bank on Dec. 10, there is a growing trend in African countries to liberalize their visa regimes and make it easy for Africans to travel on the continent.
The 2020 Visa Openness Index shows that African borders are increasingly opening up to African citizens, as year-on-year progress is made to support the freer movement of people. African travellers have liberal access to travel to a record 54% of the continent, up by 90% since 2016 and can travel visa-free or get a visa on arrival in their destination.
At the same time, fewer African countries are requesting visitors to have a visa prior to travel. Others, however, are now offering visa-free access to all African visitors. Gambia joins Seychelles and Benin at the top of the 2020 Index, having removed the need for any visa.
Meanwhile, the number of countries on the continent offering e-Visa for African travellers also continues to rise, with 44% of countries hosting an online platform, up for 17% in 2016. Most e-Visa countries are either in the top scoring countries on the index or have made the most progress on the index, and have introduced their e-Visa policies in the last four years.
Three top ranked countries—Seychelles, Gambia and Benin—do not ask for visas from African citizens visiting their countries. Senegal ranked fourth on the continent, requires visitors from 22 African countries to visit without a visa while travellers from 31 countries on the continent can access a visa on arrival.
Ghana, which is ranked fifth on the continent asks visitors from one African country to get a visa before visiting. However, visitors from 24 states do not need a visa at all while citizens from 28 states on the continent can get a visa on arrival. Uganda requires no visa for citizens of 18 African countries to visit while citizens of 34 other African states can get a visa on arrival.
Visa-free travel good for AfCFTA
The growing visa openness is welcome news for millions of Africans who are looking forward to opening the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on Jan.01, next year.
Trade experts say allowing freedom of movement means that African investors and entrepreneurs including young people will access information, skills and technology to capitalize on AfCFTA’s opportunities.
Notwithstanding the gains recorded, the findings also show that African citizens still need visas to travel to 46% of African countries.
The fifth edition of the index also highlights the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which threatens to reverse Africa’s economic gains of recent years, affecting sectors from tourism to investment.
“As the evolving fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, countries increasingly need to look beyond domestic frontiers to boost their economic prospects. Visa openness will support Africa to reposition its future growth,” said Dr. Khaled F. Sherif, the African Development Bank Vice-President, Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery.
“Time has come to safely re-open and revive economies across Africa; it is imperative to institute measures that propel the continent and all its citizens forward. Liberalizing a country’s visa regime is a policy tool that can be quickly adopted to do this,” added Amb. Kwesi Quartey, the Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission.
Meanwhile, despite the big improvement in visa openness, analysts say the policies geared towards easing freedom of movement remain a work in progress across the continent.
Policy analysts say the absence of the protocol for free movement of persons was a notable omission from the agenda at the African Union Summit held in Niamey, Niger in July, last year, according to a paper published by Mehari Taddele Maru of the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
Maru noted in his paper, “Barriers to free movement in Africa: How to remove them,” that a trust deficit and the negative mindset of government officials are key constraints to movement of persons across the continent and arise from a lack of political will and determination.
Though the paper notes that the logic of states is usually to control their borders for security reasons; hence curtailing free movement of people, it adds that African states are usually vulnerable to threats from within as much from without.
The paper notes that security threats are increasingly likely to be home-grown rather than imported. As such, Maru says a true free mobility regime, requires “better-resourced airports and border posts and significant work and investment in border governance.”
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