Uganda ranks highly in no visa for Africans

May 24, 2017 in Business, Policy, Travel & Tourism by Editor

May 24—Seychelles, Togo and Uganda rank top for minimum fuss among the 22% of African countries you don’t need a visa to visit as an African citizen.

Other African countries where visas are not required before travel are Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Mozambique, Djibouti, Madagascar, Comoros and Somalia, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mauritius and Rwanda.

Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea are the least open countries where all African travelers need visas to visit.

According to the 2017 Africa Visa Openness Index, there has been an improvement in the free movement of African nationals on the continent during the past year.

This is the second edition of the Africa Visa Openness Index launched by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in collaboration with the African Union Commission and the World Economic Forum since 2016. Ghana made the most progress in 2016 by opening up its borders to Africans who can acquire visa on arrival at its airports.

Pierre Guislain, Vice President, Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization at the AfDB said, “At the African Development Bank, we are trying to drive a continental visa policy reform programme for all of Africa. While we encourage reciprocity on visa issuance across countries, visa solutions can also be adopted unilaterally as is the case for Seychelles – once again the top performing country in Africa.”

The index shows that 24% of African countries offer visas on arrival. However, visas are needed to travel to 54% of African countries while 13 now offer electronic visas.

It covered 55 African countries including Morocco to “drive visa policy reforms across the continent and simplify visa application procedures to simplify the freer movement of people”.

Guislan said, “If we see Africa as one market, if we believe in integrating Africa and if we want to promote talent mobility all across Africa, greater freedom of movement is a necessity. As some recent global developments have led to more restrictive policies, Africa is moving toward greater openness and a connected vision of prosperity and hope.”

Generally, 75% of countries in the top 20 are either in East or West Africa, while 20% are in Southern Africa, Mauritania from the Maghreb and none from Central Africa.