No More Visa Headache, Africa is opening.

Following an announcement by South Africa last week that it was relaxing its travel rules to revive its economy, Ethiopia has followed suit, saying that it will in due course roll out a visa-on-arrival regime for all Africans entering the country.

This means that there would be no need for Africans to necessarily apply for visas before flying into the country. All African passport holders need to do is to fly in and have their visas stamped on arrival, according to Rwandan media.

Currently, citizens of African countries still need a visa to travel to more than half of the continent’s 54 countries.

“The 2016 analysis of Africa’s visa policy regimes demonstrated that on average Africans needed visas at departure to travel to 54% of other African countries (from 55% in 2015); could get visas on arrival in only 24% (from 25% in 2015); and do not need visas to travel to just 22% (from 20% in 2015).”

The AU launched an African passport in 2016 that will ultimately replace individual nations’ passport but it is currently available to senior diplomats and top officials of the AU.

The AU would want an Africa in which the continent’s 1.2 billion will require no visas to travel to enhance prospects for intracontinental trade, just like the European Union, but this does not seem to be happening soon due to numerous challenges.

The idea of having an African passport has not caught on with many countries on the continent due to fears of illegal immigration, smuggling, a spread of diseases, terrorism and the loss of local job markets, among others.

Despite a roadmap by the African Union (AU) to ensure a visa-free travel for Africans in Africa by 2020, only Seychelles is the only country where visa-free travel is open to all Africans, as well as, to citizens of every nation, though Ghana, Rwanda, Namibia, Mauritius, Benin and Kenya have all loosened travel restrictions for other African nationals.

 

DO YOU SUPPORT THE IDEA OF ISSUING VISAS ON ARRIVAL IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES?

 

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