Monrovia, Liberia – Vice President of Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery for the African Development Bank Group, Mrs. Nnenna Nwabufo, declared that the issue of visa-free mobility has to be addressed immediately since seamless movement of people is the cornerstone of economic success and integration.
The ultimate goal of Agenda 2063’s overall investment proposal is for Africans. Additionally, Mrs. Nnenna Nwabufo stated that an African must be allowed to travel freely around Africa in order to be a successful change agent and bring about the Africa “we want, as well as be able to benefit from their continent’s offerings.”
The fundamental idea behind Africa’s integration, from the days of the Organization of African Unity to the historic 1991 Treaty Establishing the Africa Economic Community (also known as the Abuja Treaty), has been that Africans must prosper and that better opportunities for self-actualization must be made available to them.
This argument is even more compelling in the current period of the African Continental Free Trade Area. With a population of 1.4 billion, which is predicted to treble by 2050, the continent offers a market size that is so enticing that the claim that the AfCFTA is a game changer must be true.
It is anticipated that the AfCFTA would increase intra-African commerce by 50% when it is fully implemented. By 2030, Africa’s manufacturing output is expected to increase from $500 billion to $1.7 trillion, with potential for the creation of 14 million manufacturing employment and 85 million services sector jobs.
These predictions of affluence imply that Africans are mobile and have access to these possibilities. “We need to include a visa-free travel policy throughout Africa to the AfCFTA if we want it to be successful. We cannot claim to have borderless trade while we erect obstacles to travel, as our AfDB President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina wisely said.”
“People trade internationally, and when there are restrictions on free movement, there are also restrictions on the free movement of products and services.”
Africa has made considerable progress in facilitating visa-free travel within its borders throughout the last ten years.
Through the yearly Africa Visa Openness Index Report, which measures how welcoming African nations are to tourists from other African nations, the African Development Bank and the African Union Commission have been monitoring this development for the past nine years.
According to the 2024 Africa Visa Openness Index Report, 39 African nations have raised their visa openness rankings from 2016, demonstrating the continent’s common goal of facilitating travel and promoting cross-border cooperation.
The countries that support visa-free travel include Benin, Gambia, Rwanda, and Seychelles. All Africans are permitted entry without a visa. By completely doing away with visa formalities for fellow African tourists, these four nations have established a daring example of transparency.
African countries are also leveraging technology to make travel easier. The number of AU Member States offering electronic visas (e-visas) has jumped from just 9 countries in 2016 to 26 countries in 2024.
This digital progress means an entrepreneur in one country can virtually apply for entry to another country instead of spending half a day queuing at an embassy. This is indeed a tangible step toward faster, more user-friendly travel.
According to Mrs. Nnenna Nwabufo, nationals of at least 35 additional African nations can obtain visas on arrival from 12 African nations. Though it is acknowledged that sometimes the wait at the airport is discouraging when non-Africans are treated better than Africans, this is significant because it allows Africans to begin the journey without the hassle and delays of applying at embassies or using online processes.
“We cannot afford to stay complacent in spite of these advancements, as the Africa Visa Openness Index Report 2024 demonstrates. There are still major obstacles to intra-African travel. Simply said, at least 70% of the time, Africans still require a visa in order to travel to other African nations. When our objective is to establish a single African market under the scope of the AfCFTA in 2025, this obstacle is intolerable. If investors or entrepreneurs find it difficult to relocate across borders to take advantage of possibilities, how can we fulfill the promise of the AfCFTA?” VP Nnenna Nwabufo continued.
In order to guarantee free movement and enable every African to interact, trade, and prosper throughout the continent, the conference aims to address this problem and, ideally, find a solution.
“The goal of an integrated Africa won’t be achieved by accident. To remove visa restrictions and open the door to an integrated African continent, strong leadership and teamwork are needed,” VP Nwabufo maintained.
Mrs. Nnenna Nwabufo highlighted the success of the visa-free regime program is successful:
- We want an Africa where a young engineer from Lagos can take a short flight to Nairobi for a project, carrying only his or her passport with no visas or hassles.
- We want an Africa where a tourist from Mali can spontaneously visit the pyramids in Egypt or the vineyards of Cape Town on a single African passport.
- We want an Africa where businesses expand seamlessly across borders, and students from all corners of the continent mix freely in our universities.
- We want an Africa where no African is a foreigner anywhere in Africa.
Vice President and RDVP Mrs. Nnenna Nwabufo, “Excellencies, if we break down the visa walls that separate our people, we will elevate both possibility and hope.”
“We at the African Development Bank are still dedicated to promoting the expansion of travel throughout the continent without a visa. We do it because it has the potential to improve Africa and bring about wealth. In actuality, using Africa’s potential to create a wealthy, inclusive, resilient, and interconnected continent is at the heart of our new Ten-Year Strategy (2024–2033). If we follow through on our promise to an integrated Africa, I have no doubt that we can succeed and make this a reality,” VP Nwabufo said.
