Seychelles, Uganda and Togo: most welcoming African countries - report

Seychelles, Uganda and Togo are top among the 22% of African countries you don’t need a visa to visit as an African.

They lead in the 2017 Africa Visa Openness Index released last week. It notes an improvement in the free movement of African nationals in the continent.

Ghana made the most progress in 2016 by opening up its borders to Africans who can acquire visa on arrival at its airports, the index added.

This is the second edition of the Africa Visa Openness Index launched by the African Development Bank in collaboration with the African Union Commission and the World Economic Forum since 2016.

It indicates that 24% of African countries offer visas on arrival. But, visas are needed to travel to 54% of African countries while 13 African countries offer electronic visas.

The Index covered 55 African countries including Morocco to “drive visa policy reforms across the continent and simplify visa application procedures to simplify the freer movement of people”.

Other African countries where visas are not required before travel are Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Mozambique, Djibouti, Madagascar, Comoros and Somalia.

Cape Verde, Ghana, Mauritius and Rwanda are among the top performing countries on the index yet a few African countries need visas to visit.

Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea are the least open countries where all African travellers need visas to visit.

Generally, 75% of countries in the top 20 are either in East or West Africa, while 20% are in Southern Africa, Mauritania from the Maghreb and none from Central Africa.