Ghana has been ranked the 5th most visa-open country in Africa with a total score of 0.875, according to the 2022 Africa Visa Openness Index.
The report showed that nationals from 24 African countries require no visa to travel to the West African country, 28 countries require visa on arrival while 1 country requires full visa.
Three countries— Benin, The Gambia and the Seychelles— offer visa-free entry to Africans of all other countries. This is a marked improvement because in 2016 and 2017, only one country did so.
Nine (9) of the 20 most visa-open countries are in West Africa, namely: Benin, Cabo Verde, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, Senegal, The Gambia, Togo, and Sierra Leone.
The 2022 Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI) report showed that African countries are making progress in their freedom of travel policies, most of which had been severely curtailed by the Covid-19 crisis.
The annual publication, prepared by the African Development Bank Group in collaboration with the African Union Commission, is now in its 7th edition and was launched on the sidelines of the 2022 African Economic Conference in Mauritius.
The report tracks visa policies adopted by African governments on three main criteria: whether entry to citizens from other African countries is visa-free, if a visa on arrival can be obtained, and whether travelers are required to obtain visas ahead of traveling to other African countries.
This year’s report underlined the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the last two years (2020 and 2021) during which most countries restricted movement, both domestically and for international travel. Restrictions on international travel ranged from closing entire borders to quarantines, screening measures, and bans on visitors from countries deemed “high risk.”
Domestic restrictions included a gamut of measures such as prohibitions on travelling between provinces, bans on non-essential movement, curfews, and rules that limited gatherings.
Renewed signs of progress
The 2022 report reflected on renewed signs of progress: 10 countries have improved their visa openness score over the past year, and visa openness on the continent now exceeds that recorded during the year prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and is in line with the peak score achieved in 2020.
Progressive visa policies that increase visa-free entry or to visa on arrival policies, will ensure that this positive trend continues. The use of technology and a greater adoption of e-Visa systems, will help fast-track the ease at which travelers can cross borders.
African travel has become more open to African citizens in 2022, with fewer restrictions overall. There is now an even split between travel that is visa free, and travel where a visa may be obtained on arrival at the destination country.
In an innovation, the report provides an analysis of free movement of persons at regional economic community level in Africa. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the East African Community are the most open communities, with ECOWAS hosting eight of the top ten countries.
“This edition links free movement to the development of regional value chains, investments, trade in services and the AfCFTA. There is greater recognition that human mobility is key to Africa’s integration efforts.”
African Union Commission Deputy Chairperson Dr. Monique Nsazabaganwa
Commenting on the report, African Development Bank Group Acting Director in charge of the Regional Integration Coordination Office, Jean-Guy Afrika, said: “The Africa Visa Openness Index has tracked the evolution of visa regimes on the African continent from before the pandemic to today”.
“As the 2022 report shows, African countries are dismantling many of the measures imposed during the pandemic. Indeed, on the whole, the continent has returned to a level of visa openness last seen just before the pandemic began.”
Jean-Guy Afrika
The Africa Visa Openness Index measures the extent to which African countries are open to travelers from other African countries. Published yearly since 2016, the AVOI tracks changes in countries’ scores over time to show how national policies evolve on the freedom of movement across Africa.
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