Use of terminology
The term ‘visa openness’ refers to the ease with which travellers can obtain authorisation to travelto and enter a country, pending final determination by the destination country’s immigration officials. The more visa-open a country, the easier it is for a traveller to visit that country.
There are different degrees of visa openness. Higher levels of visa openness refer to a generally more liberal policy for entry of visitors, meaning that visitors either do not need a visa to enter the territory, or can obtain a visa upon arrival. In contrast, a visa-restrictive country requires visitors to obtain a visa before they travel. In such instances, visitors may be required to obtain a visa or equivalent travel authorisation from an embassy, a consulate, or through an online process ahead of travel. While many countries have implemented electronic visa (e-Visa) systems, which add a measure of convenience to prospective travellers, the application process must still be completed ahead of travel.
The use of percentage scores, where assigned, generally relates to the share of other African countries that a country’s particular visa policy applies to, or in the case of visa reciprocity, the proportion of which a country’s visa policies are reciprocated by every other country within the Regional Economic Community (REC) to which they belong. Each intra-African country-to- country travel permutation is termed a travel scenario, and these form the basis for all percentage computations. The visa policy of each African country (54 in number) is gauged as it relates to every other African country (53), thus involving 2,862 (54x53) travel scenarios altogether.
Reciprocity involves countries aligning their visa regimes with one another, whether deliberately by design or by chance, and applying the same policy towards one another’s citizens. Positive reciprocity, as measured by the Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI) and analysed in the respective REC sections, references countries’ alignment of visa-free policies within their region.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
| AfCFTA | African Continental Free Trade Area |
| AfDB | African Development Bank Group |
| AMU | Arab Maghreb Union |
| AU | African Union |
| AUC | African Union Commission |
| AVOI | Africa Visa Openness Index |
| CEMAC | Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale (Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa) |
| CEN-SAD | Community of Sahel-Saharan States |
| COMESA | Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa |
| DRC | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| E-visa | Electronic visa |
| EAC | East African Community |
| ECCAS | Economic Community of Central African States |
| ECOWAS | Economic Community of West African States |
| ETA | Electronic Travel Authorisation |
| EU | European Union |
| EUR | Euro |
| ESTA | Electronic System for Travel Authorization |
| GBP | Great Britain pound sterling |
| GTI | Guided Trade Initiative |
| IATA | International Air Transport Association |
| IGAD | Intergovernmental Authority on Development |
| OSBP | One-stop border post |
| PFMP | Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons |
| QR code | Quick Response code |
| REC | Regional Economic Community |
| RoO | Rules of Origin |
| SAATM | Single African Air Transport Market |
| SADC | Southern African Development Communit |
| TYS | Ten-Year Strategy |
| UNECA | United Nations Economic Commission for Africa |
| USD | United States Dollar |
| VOA | Visa on arrival |
Methodology
The individual scores, derived from countries’ different categories of visa policies, serve as proxy indicators of the ease with which citizens can travel to each country, and as a broad reflection of how welcoming countries are to the citizens of other African countries.
The AVOI score for a country is calculated by aggregating the individual scores for the country’s visa policy as applied towards the citizens of every other African country. Here the methodology primarily differentiates between policies that require travellers to apply for and obtain a visa ahead of travel, where travellers have the option of obtaining a visa on arrival at the port of entry in the destination country, and travel scenarios where entry is permitted without the requirement or a visa.
Scores and rankings. AVOI scores range from 0 to 1, where 0 applies to a country with the most restrictive visa policies (that require a visa to be obtained ahead of travel by all travellers), while a score of 1 applies when a country has removed visa restrictions for all other African citizens.
The higher a country’s index score (the closer to 1), the more “visa-open” the country is and the higher it ranks on the AVOI.
Categories and weightings. To calculate each country’s score, the AVOI assesses the visa policy each country applies to the citizens of each of the other 53 countries on the continent and classifies each policy in one of three categories. The AVOI gives each category a weighting:
| Category | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Visa before travel | 0 |
| Visa on arrival | 0.8 |
| Visa-free | 1.0 |
Calculations. To compute the country’s score, the AVOI follows four steps:
1. It counts the number of countries that fall in each visa category (visa before travel, visa on arrival, visa-free).
2. It converts that number into a percentage of all countries in Africa.
3. It weighs each percentage according to the weighting given to each category.
4. It adds the figures.
Formula. AVOI score = [(% of African countries whose nationals must obtain a visa before travelling × 0) + (% of African countries whose nationals may obtain a visa on arrival × 0.8) + (% of African countries whose nationals are not required to obtain a visa × 1)]
An example
Country X requires the nationals of 13 countries to obtain a visa before travel; allows the nationals of 30 countries to obtain a visa on arrival; and it allows the nationals of ten other countries to enter its territory visa-free. Country X’s score is calculated as follows:
AVOI score for Country X = [(13/53 × 0) + (30/53 × 0.8) + (10/53 × 1)] = 0.642
Limitations
The AVOI has applied an unchanged methodology to track visa openness ever since the original issue was published a decade ago. This involves a single source of information (IATA), and consistent scoring of countries’ visa policies according to three categories: The requirement for a visa ahead of travel to the destination country, the availability of a visa on arrival at the destination country, and countries where visa-free entry is granted.
These policies are generally applied on a differentiated basis. For example, most countries apply different visa regimes to different nationalities. The AVOI measures visa policies that apply to the casual visitor and does not extend to categories that may extend the right of residence and occupation in another country. This is notwithstanding that higher levels of integration and broad freedom of movement have been attained within some regions, where citizens of certain countries may have additional rights beyond a casual, non-commercial visit. Activities that require a business visa are specifically not considered by the AVOI methodology, even if certain business activities (meetings, conferences, trade shows) might indeed be covered and permissible.
Assessing visa openness requires a consistent source of information. Since the report’s inception in 2016, visa policy data has been drawn from IATA, the representative body of the international airline industry, because it maintains a global database of countries’ passport, visa and health requirements pertaining to cross-border travel. It is thus of critical importance that countries cross-check the information that IATA shares with the industry, since it informs the advice given to travellers by their booking agents or is displayed on travel websites and helps determine any pre-boarding restrictions that airlines may apply to prospective travellers, given certain liabilities that they hold as the carrier.
At times, IATA information appears at odds with information shown on government websites or other resources. There are also times when information is not fully updated or appears not to have been communicated to IATA. At other times, new policies announced by relevant government agencies may not be in full force, or old policies may continue to appear on different official websites. To approach the data collection with consistency, this report uses the information as shown in relevant fields in the IATA database during the data collection period, with the exception of obvious errors. Deviating from this approach would risk introducing unverified or even anecdotal sources of data and other inconsistencies, even where at face value they may appear to be accurate.
The limited African experience with ETAs has shown that they are substantively comparable to, if not more onerous, than the requirements of a typical e-Visa application process. When noted in the IATA database as a compulsory requirement ahead of travel, they are classified by the AVOI in the same way as an e-Visa. To ensure consistency with the scoring methodology, and since an e-Visa is required ahead of travel, such scenarios are not awarded any points.
The real-world experience of travellers may not always correlate perfectly with countries’ official visa policies, and most intra-African travel is through land borders rather than airports. Official processes may deviate from policies applied when embarking on air travel and arriving at a country’s commercial airport. Sudden unilateral travel restrictions or border closures continue to form part of the experience of many prospective travellers, because of broader conflict, local cross-border disputes, or a myriad of other factors.
While a visa is a reliable overall proxy indicator of ease of travel, by definition, a visa authorises travel to a country but does not guarantee a right of entry. The final determination is the prerogative of immigration officials at the point of entry.
