Rwanda is ranked the first country in visa openness in Africa, a position it has maintained since 2023 due to its visa-free regime. File 

Rwanda is ranked the first country in visa openness in Africa, a position it has maintained since 2023 due to its visa-free regime, according to the latest report on Africa Visa Openness.

The authors of the Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI) 2024 also ranked Benin, The Gambia, and Seychelles as leading countries in first place of visa openness for offering visa-free access to all Africans. 

The report is a joint initiative of the African Development Bank and the African Union (AU) Commission.

AVOI measures the extent to which African countries are open to visitors from other African countries. It analyses each country’s visa requirements to show which nations on the continent most facilitate travel to their territory.

The report indicates that the top 10 countries scored an average of 0.910. Eight countries decreased their score, 17 countries increased their score, and 29 countries maintained their score.

It highlights that nine top 20 performers are low‑income countries whereby three of them are landlocked, including Rwanda.

However, when it comes to reciprocity, Rwandans need visa when traveling to 16 African countries, visa-on-arrival when traveling to 16 African countries, and visa required when traveling to 21 countries.

When the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Olivier Nduhungirehe 

recently, he said that holding a visa-free regime was a political decision taken by Rwanda and is not subjected to reciprocity.

“Based on that [decision], we have been signing visa waiver agreements with different countries in Africa and across so that we can allow free movement of people in both ways and we will continue doing that,” he said.

Joy Kategekwa, Director of Regional Integration at African Development Bank Group, noted that Africa will not meet its development aspirations in the absence of regimes that promote mobility across the continent.

There is no single country that does not want to reap the dividends of tourism – given the continent’s abundance of some of the most historic attractions, and yet, visa restrictions make it difficult for Africans to contribute to each other’s tourism revenues, she pointed out. 

Kategekwa said that as Africa looks to industrialize and benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), it is imperative that people move –not only to bring skills into managing such operations but also to take advantage of the jobs that will be created.

“It follows therefore that the creation of conditions easing movement of Africans across Africa is in the continent’s enlightened self-interest.”

The report ranked Sudan as the least open country to other Africans as it scored 0.030 for requiring visas from 51 countries and visas on arrival for two countries.