Africa dragging feet on visa-free travel regimes

Source: East African, 23/12/2018

In Summary
• The Africa Visa Openness Index Report 2018 ranked Rwanda
third most visa-open country on the continent
• The 2018 Visa Openness Index shows that Africans require
visas to travel to over half the countries on the continent
Millions of travellers within Africa continue to face challenges
due the continent`s inability to implement conducive and common
visa regimes, a conference heard.
The African Economic Conference, hosted by UNDP in Kigali, noted
that despite leaders’ commitments to ease movement, little had
been achieved in building road or air routes linking cities, while
many Africans were still denied entry to a country because of
visas.
The problem, the experts said, was curtailing the free movement of
people protocol, viewed as a key pillar to regional integration
and the African Continental Free Trade Area.
`The commitments to ease movement that have been made must be
realised and jobs have to be created at an unprecedented level,`
Paul Coullier, a professor of Economics and Public Policy at the
University of Oxford, said.
`The barriers imposed in Africa serve in the interest of more
developed countries. The task over the next decade is to build
more connectivity among cities and remove barriers that infringe
growth on the continent.`
The African Development Bank (AfDB) will on Tuesday discuss its
third edition of the Visa Openness Index, which indicates the
countries that were making improvements on free movement across
Africa.
Policy reforms
The Africa Visa Openness Index Report 2018, launched in Addis
Ababa last week, ranked Rwanda third most visa open country on the
continent.
“The Index has helped raise awareness and drive visa policy
reforms across the continent to ease movement of people, unlocking
opportunities for intra-African tourism, trade and investment. In
so doing, the Bank is directly contributing to the objectives of
the AU initiative for a Single African passport,” Mr Gabriel
Negatu, the AfDB Director General for East Africa Regional
Development said.
Rwanda`s Economic Planning minister Claudine Uwera said that
Kigali had shown political will to push for a visa-free Africa for
the continent`s citizens.
“Rwanda announced early this year a visa on arrival platform for
travellers from all African countries. Development and prosperity
will simply not be possible if we do not integrate,” she said.
“Governance will determine the development path for our countries.
Equally important is the role of political will and commitment
from African leaders. Important pages of our continent’s
development history are being written. Let’s take this opportunity
to move the continent ahead.”
Their score
The 2018 Visa Openness Index shows that Africans require visas to
travel to over half the countries on the continent.
It shows that the top 20 visa-open countries continue to improve
their liberal regimes, while 43 countries improved or maintained
their score.
Benin made the highest jump by opening up its borders to African
travellers, which enabled it to move from 27th in 2017 to 1st
place in 2018.
The West African state, alongside Seychelles â€` which is ranked
second ahead of Rwanda - were the only two on the continent that
did not charge Africans visa fees.