Visa restrictions and economic consequences in Africa
As African leaders gather for the 38th African Union (AU) Summit, the call for a visa-free continent has taken center stage. The AUC and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have jointly urged African governments to accelerate the removal of visa restrictions that continue to hinder regional integration, trade, and economic development. Speaking at the High-Level Strategic Dialogue on Accelerating Visa-Free Movement for Africa’s Transformation, on 12 February, AU officials, policymakers, and business leaders highlighted the contradiction between Africa’s regional integration goals and the reality that many Africans still need visas to travel across the continent. “We cannot talk about a united Africa if Africans themselves cannot move freely within their own continent. It is time for our governments to evaluate what has worked and what has not worked,” said Ambassador Albert Mudenda Muchanga, the African Union Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals. Visa restrictions remain one of the biggest barriers to intra-African trade, he added.
The Africa Visa Openness Index, a joint initiative by AfDB and the AUC, has consistently shown slow progress in easing travel restrictions, despite policy frameworks like the AU Free Movement Protocol and Agenda 2063’s vision of a borderless Africa. The ninth edition of the Index reveals that while some countries, such as Rwanda, The Gambia, Seychelles, Benin, and Ghana, have embraced visa-free policies, many others remain restrictive. “The vision of an integrated Africa will not happen by chance. It requires bold leadership and collective commitment to dismantle visa barriers,” noted Nnenna Nwabufo, Vice President for Regional Development, Integration, and Business Delivery at AfDB. With over 50% of African nations requiring visas for most Africans, restricted mobility hampers labor migration, business and trade, skills, and innovation, slowing development.
“If we truly believe in the AfCFTA, then free movement must be the backbone of our integration. We must align trade facilitation with mobility—because goods do not move themselves; people move them,” said Mr. Prudence Sebahizi, Rwanda’s Minister of Trade and Industry. With momentum building for change, the AU and AfDB announced the launch of the 2025 Visa-Free Roadshow, a campaign designed to engage policymakers, businesses, and civil society in accelerating visa liberalization efforts across the continent. The initiative aims to showcase success stories, highlight economic benefits, and push for political commitments to break down travel barriers. As the AU Summit progresses, the push for visa-free movement is expected to remain a critical topic, with leaders being reminded to align policy commitments with concrete action. The AU’s call is clear: Let the people move, and Africa will prosper.
Visa restrictions and economic consequences in Africa
Visas represent high cost in terms of money and time for the individual applying for visas, as well as missed opportunities for the local service economy and for trade. However, despite several improvements to visa legislations in Africa countries (such as in Djibouti, Mozambique and Rwanda), many immigration policies no longer respond to the present-day needs of African businesses and citizens.
African countries remain closed off to each other, making travel within the continent difficult. Africa is one of the regions in the world with the highest visa requirements. This situation is even more restricted for Africans traveling within Africa, as compared to Europeans and North Americans. This is despite the fact that the number of arrivals to the continent’s destinations (and especially intra-African flights) has showed the highest growth globally over the years (IATA, 2010). One should add that business visas are often more difficult to obtain than tourist visas. Only five African countries (Seychelles, Mozambique, Rwanda, Comoros and Madagascar) offer visa-free access or visas on arrival to citizens of all African countries. On the other hand, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé, and Sudan require citizens from every single African country to apply for a visa. On average, African citizens require visas to visit 60 per cent of African countries – ranging from a high of 84 per cent for Somalia to a low of 41 per cent for The Gambia.
Migration in Africa
The majority of Africans migrate within Africa. Eighty per cent of South-South migration takes place between border countries. Sub-Saharan Africa displays 63 per cent of intra-regional flows and the numbers are even higher when looking at sub-regions (World Bank, 2011). Nonetheless, the free and regulated movement of people has remained one of the least elaborated policy areas of regional integration. Regional Economic Communities (RECs), namely, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) have developed protocols and other mechanisms aimed at achieving regional free movement of persons, the right of residence and establishment. The EAC and ECOWAS have made notable progress to date.
There are substantial differences between the African regions. Central Africa is the least connected, and the use of traditional visas is the highest of all Africa’s sub-regions. Comparatively, East Africa is the second most open sub-region in the world, with high numbers of visas on arrival. East Africans, on the other hand, require the most visas to travel within Africa, while countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have the most access, requiring a visa to visit under 50 per cent of the African countries. This is mainly due to the visa-free movement within the ECOWAS sub-region, implemented under the 1979 Protocol of Free Movement. Free Movement is also in place in the East African Community (EAC).
Today, Rwanda has the continent’s most liberal migration policy. In an attempt to consolidate regional integration and trade as well as boost business and tourism, Rwanda has, as of January 1, 2013, allowed entry-visas for all African citizens arriving at its borders. Furthermore, Rwanda offers online visa requests and biometric border management through registration of facial image and finger prints. This has led to a 24 per cent rise in tourism from African countries since the beginning of this year, a 50 per cent increase in trade with neighbouring countries last year, and a 73 per cent increase in trade with the Democratic Republic of Congo. For example, between Rwanda and DRC – on the border points of La Corniche and Poids Lourds – approximately 25,000 people cross each border point every day, some crossing more than four times per day. The average time of crossing is 15 seconds/30 seconds respectively for citizens and foreigners.
The impact of visa restrictions on the tourism sector
Visa restrictions have broad economic consequences, notably for the tourism sector. Prior to 2013, Mauritius required visitors to apply for visas before arriving, while Seychelles does not require entry visas at all – this has led to a high gap in tourist growth. The number of tourists to Seychelles has grown by 7 per cent per annum in the last five years while Mauritius has remained almost stagnant. As a result, the Mauritian Government are trying to boost tourism by relaxing visa regimes for 30 African countries and 75 countries overall.
Beyond tourism, visa requirements imply missed economic opportunities for intra-regional trade, and the local service economy (such as cross-country medical services or education). Improving visa facilitation could generate an additional US $206 billion for the tourism sector alone, and create as many as 5.1 million new jobs by 2015 in the G20 countries (WEF, 2013). Tourist arrivals to Africa will grow at double the pace compared to advanced-economy destinations. The tourism industry represents three per cent of global employment, with indirect employment included it contributes to around one in every 11 jobs worldwide. The industry is expected to grow with a pace of 3.3 per cent per year. By 2015, destinations in the global South would have surpassed those in the global North. Visa policies are among the most important governmental formalities negatively influencing international tourism.
How to improve mobility across Africa
In the short term, one can underline five key solutions to improve mobility across Africa: (1) scaling up visa on arrival programs; (2) simplifying the visa application process (offering e-visas); (3) offering long-dated visas (e.g. 10 years); (4) ensuring positive reciprocity between countries; and (5) encouraging more visa-free regional blocks.
In the long-term, policy-makers have to address restrictions to the mobility of various groups such as professional service providers, seasonal workers and cross-border traders – which are impeding competitiveness in African countries and affecting the private sector’s ability to quickly source skills. Other challenges include lacking regional harmonization of frameworks and mutual recognition of qualifications. Many African migrants face systemic disadvantages, often due to the irregular status, such as lack of access to basic services, especially, education, health, housing and formal financial services. This has broad regional consequences for human capital development.
There is a pressing need to train, retain and attract skilled professionals within the continent. Beyond trade and investments for job creation, African countries require high-skilled innovative entrepreneurial forces for economic transformation in order to profit from emerging industries such as banking, extractive industries and ICT. Restrictive immigration laws limits regional skills pooling throughout Africa, and currently the private sector is not able to quickly acquire, move and retain skills. The restricted mobility of professional services is therefore impeding growth in African countries.
Time to tear down Africa’s visa barriers
For decades, Africans have struggled to travel freely around the continent. Visas to visit fellow African states are hard to secure, costly, and limited in scope. The pan-African dream of unfettered travel between nations – let alone of arrangements allowing citizens to work and settle in other parts of Africa – remains a long way from reality. There has been no shortage of earnest meetings to discuss the issue. The latest “strategic dialogue” between ministers was held in February on the sidelines of the Africa Union Summit in Addis Ababa. The discussions drew on the release of the Africa Visa Openness Report 2024, which found a mixed picture in the year. Of 54 countries considered, 17 improved their visa openness score over the year; 29 countries’ scores remain unchanged; and eight countries scored lower. The net effect of the changes was a slightly lower aggregate openness score than in 2023 – a score on a par with 2022, but higher than the aggregate score in the six prior years.
Major countries failing
There is, of course, huge diversity in the performance of individual countries. Benin, Seychelles, the Gambia and Rwanda all achieved perfect scores and, encouragingly, countries with huge populations such as Nigeria and Ethiopia rank in the top 20. But major nations such as Egypt, Algeria and Kenya all rank in the bottom 10, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is ranked just one place outside it. “In 2024, several countries have implemented visa policy changes. Some have been bold, instituting positive visa reforms which have resulted in tangible progress towards a more open continent,” the report finds. “Other policy changes have created new impediments that undermine the ease of movement, resulting in more burdensome travel some citizens. Some of these policy changes relate to domestic or foreign policy, political, security or other concerns.”
Overall, just 28% of countries offer visa-free intraAfrican travel and just 25% offer visas on arrival for intra-African travel. For 47% of intra-Africa travel, Africans need a visa before travelling. In her foreword to the report, Joy Kategekwa, director of the Regional Integration Coordination Office at the African Development Bank, hinted that the “mixed set of findings” showed that the continent is not moving quickly enough to remove barriers. “While some progress has been made since the inaugural edition of the Africa Visa Openness Index, we are far from where we need to be,” she writes. “That Africans continue to require visas for the most part to enter other African countries is one of the most profound contradictions to the continent’s aspirations on regional integration… Africa will not meet its development aspirations in the absence of regimes that promote mobility across the continent.”
Look to regional communities
Kategekwa says that one way to accelerate progress would be to look to Africa’s regional economic communities (RECs), which she says have pioneered a rights-based approach to movement: the right of citizens from one country in the community to enter, reside and establish themselves in another. Indeed, in its conclusions, the report says Africa should consider regional visa systems that apply to travel within an entire REC, or at a minimum, cover travel to several REC member states. Higher levels of visa-free reciprocity can be promoted within RECs as a stepping stone to more visa openness. And excess bureaucracy can be tackled, the report says, by introducing e-visas based on secure, reliable, mobile-friendly platforms. That should all help to incrementally extend visa-free travel policies to all African Union member states, at the very least for African Continental Free Trade-related business. The session in Addis Ababa concluded with the announcement that a 2025 Visa-Free Roadshow will sustain advocacy and mobilise action. One hopes that the travelling policymakers will face no barriers during their trip.
Atanga Desmond Funwie
