Monrovia, Liberia – AfCFTA has announced the hosting of the African Economic Conference 2024. The event’s goals are to introduce the 2024 Africa Visa Openness Index Report, highlight its main conclusions, and look at ways to enhance Africans’ freedom of movement throughout the continent.
The Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI) has been created since 2016 by the African Union Commission in partnership with the African Development Bank. Many African nations have implemented changes in the last nine years that have facilitated and promoted the free flow of people around the continent.
The findings of the 9th edition of AVOI are uneven, with some nations seeing an improvement in their ranks and others seeing a decline. As Africa prepares to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), it is critical to remove obstacles to free movement of people because integration that is not people-centered is doomed to fail.
The Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons was signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in March 2018 by thirty (30) African nations. With its three main phases of liberalization right of admission, right of residency, and right of establishment and the Protocol takes a progressive stance on free movement. More than just fostering integration will result from allowing Africans to travel freely over the continent.
It will improve living conditions, increase labor mobility, foster employment possibilities, and ease trade and investment within Africa. The Protocol has only been ratified by four nations so far (Mali, Niger, Rwanda, and São Tomé & Principe), which begs the issue of whether African nations are truly dedicated to welcoming tourists from other African nations.
