By Omar Bah
The Gambia has been ranked Number One among 54 countries in the African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Union’s 2024 African Visa Openness Index (AVOI) report.
AVOI tracks visa-openness on African continent and how easy it is for African citizens to travel to other African countries.
Visa openness refers to the ease with which travellers can obtain authorisation to travel to and enter a country, pending final determination by the destination immigration officials.
The more visa-open a country, the easier it is for a traveller to visit that country.
However, there are different degrees of visa openness.
“A more visa-open country has a generally more liberal or relaxed visa policy for visitors, meaning that visitors either do not need a visa to enter its territory or can obtain a visa upon arrival,” the report said.
According to the report, The Gambia, Benin, Rwanda, and the Seychelles continued to occupy the top spot on the AVOI in 2024.
“Sixteen of the top-20 ranked countries are located in West and Eastern Africa in equal parts, eight in West Africa and eight in East Africa. North Africa is represented by one country (Mauritania), while Southern Africa accounts for three countries, namely Madagascar, Mauritius, and Mozambique,” the report stated.
It added that eighteen of the top-20 countries on the AVOI are classified as either lower-middle-income or low-income countries, suggesting that lower-income countries are often more embracing of liberal visa regimes.
The report noted that several higher-income countries had continued to maintain restrictive visa regimes, perhaps owing to concerns that visa openness would incentivise inbound travel for purely economic reasons or create pathways to irregular migration.
It noted that visa openness, as measured by the AVOI, related to casual travel and was not linked to other rights, such as the right to undertake business activities or take up residence.
Regarding countries that had improved the most from 2016 to 2024, 39 countries scored higher now than in 2016.
It listed the most improved countries as Benin (moved rank from 31 to 1), Ethiopia (from 46 to 19), Sierra Leone (from 32 to 13), Nigeria (from 25 to 6), and Gambia (from 18 to 1).
According to the report, this reflects overall progress towards easing travel between African countries.
