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Though Africans travel with ease within the continent, African passports still cannot travel far

A new passport ranking has shown that Nigeria still ranks among Nations with the least powerful passport in the world.

Despite Intracontinental travels being made easier, traveling Intercontinentally with it is not guaranteed.

The annual Henley Passport Index released show an overall decline in the strength of African passports compared to other continents.

Seychelles, Mauritius and South Africa ranked top in Africa, spots retained from the previous ranking.

Seychelles and Mauritius are the only two countries with passport improvement over the decade. Seychelles climbed 17 places and Mauritius 16 places. According to Henley, the islands’ improvement is largely due to being the only African countries having a visa-waiver agreement with the Schengen area.

The Seychellois passport’s strength may also be attributed to its own policy as a visa-free country, with no requirements for any traveler wishing to visit. Similarly, Mauritius does not require visa from a majority of the world’s travelers, (only requires 16 countries’ citizens to apply for a visa) before travel.

Henley Passport Index also revealed that the US passport’s usefulness has fallen since President Donald Trump took office, with Turkey and the Central African Republic becoming the most recent countries to revoke visa-free entry to holders.

How are Nations ranked?

The Passport Index is a ranking of Countries or territories, according to how many other countries or territories one can travel to visa-free on a particular country or territory’s passport.

The ranking is made according to the score each country achieves in terms of numbers of other countries to which visa-free access is possible.

The basis of the data consists of all countries and territories covered in the International Air Transport Association (IATA) database.

To determine the score for each country or territory, the IATA database is queried in the following ways:

  • Each country or territory, for which the score is to be determined, is checked against every country or territory for which travel restriction information exists in the IATA database.
  • Each query is made on the following conditions: The passport is issued in the country of Nationality, The passport is valid, The passport holder is a citizen of the issuing country, The passport holder is an adult, Entry is sought for a tourism or business visit, Duration of the stay is at least three days.

Further conditions include:

  • The queries are made only for holders of normal passports, i.e. diplomatic or service passports and other travel documents are disregarded
  • Complex requirements regarding passports are disregarded, i.e. as if such requirements do not exist. These may include translations or empty pages
  • Requirements by the destination country or territory regarding a particular length of validity of passports are disregarded
  • Countries with restrictions on female travelers are disregarded
  • Any health requirements, requirements of sufficient funds or return tickets are disregarded
  • Advance passenger information and advance approval to board are not considered to be a visa requirement or travel restriction, neither is the requirement to pay airport tax, are also disregarded

If no visa is required for passport holders from a country or territory for which the score is to be determined to enter the destination under the above conditions, then a score (value = 1) is made for the passport holder’s country or territory.

After all queries have been made, the total score for each country or territory is equal to the number of destination countries or territories for which the outcome is “no visa required” under the conditions defined above.

Germany reclaimed top spot from Singapore with a visa-free score of 161 while Singapore dropped one spot to second place with a score of 160.

Seychelles is 26th in Global Ranking with a score of 141, while Mauritius and South Africa are ranked 32nd and 54th, scoring 134 and 100 respectively.

Nigeria is ranked 81st with a score of 44.

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