Addis Ababa, February 12, 2025 (FMC) – The 2024 of Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI) highlighted the urgent need for decisive action to unlock Africa’s economic potential through enhanced mobility.
On the sidelines of the 38th AU Summit, the African Union and the African Development Bank (AfDB) co-hosted a High-Level Strategic Dialogue on Accelerating Visa-Free Movement for Africa’s Transformation and integration.
The high-level dialogue focused on leveraging the AU Summit to advance regional integration by showcasing successful visa-free policies, addressing implementation challenges, among others.
The Africa Visa Openness Index, a joint initiative of African Development Bank and African Union, tracks progress in facilitating visa-free travel.
The AVOI measures how easily African citizens can travel within the continent without visa restrictions.
The year 2024 witnessed important changes in AVOI scores of 54 countries on the continent. 17 countries have improved their AVOI score over the past year, building on the 15 countries that showed an improvement in the last edition.
Some 29 countries’ scores remain unchanged, while eight countries score lower in this edition.
According to the latest data, 28 percent of intra-African travel is now visa-free an improvement from 20 percent in 2016. Additionally, 25 percent of African travelers can obtain a visa upon arrival, though this figure has slightly declined from 26 percent in 2023.
However, 47 percent of intra-African travel still requires visas before departure, stressing the need for further policy reforms.
Moreover, the edition indicated that Benin, Gambia, Rwanda and the Seychelles continue to occupy the top spot on the AVOI even this year.
Some significant and notable improvements have occurred over the past year, the edition indicated. Sierra Leone and Angola have shown the greatest increase in their AVOI score.
Sierra Leone has made significant strides in easing access to travellers, resulting in a 62 percent increase in its visa openness score, significantly changing its rank from 22nd in 2023 to 13th in 2024.
Over the period 2016 to 2024, 39 countries score higher now than they did in 2016, a reflection of overall progress towards easing travel between African countries.
Moreover, it emphasized that achieving Africa’s economic and trade goals under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) necessitates enhanced mobility.
Finally, the edition recommended for accelerating action on visa-free entry to African countries to African citizens, ratify the AU protocol on the free movement of persons as well as accept visa-free travel for AfCFTA business.