Africa’s long journey toward the free movement of people, one of the African Union’s founding aspirations and a cornerstone of the continent’s integration agenda, took centre stage on Friday, 12 December 2025, with the launch of the 2025 Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI) in Abidjan.
Jointly produced by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Union Commission (AUC), the report marks ten years of tracking travel policy reforms across Africa.
It offers a comprehensive picture of progress achieved, reforms that have stalled, and the challenges that continue to constrain mobility across the continent.
The message from a decade of evidence is clear: Africa is more open today than it was ten years ago.
The launch convened policymakers, diplomats, private-sector leaders, academics, youth representatives and development partners, all united around a shared conviction that the free movement of Africans is not only a political aspiration, but an economic necessity.
Progress in numbers: Steady gains, uneven pace
The 2025 AVOI report confirms progress in visa openness across the continent.
In 2025, the average visa openness score across all African countries reached 0.448. Among the continent’s leaders, the top ten most open countries now average 0.890, while the top twenty average 0.781, demonstrating what sustained political commitment can achieve.
These figures highlight a persistent gap between frontrunners and the rest of the continent. At the same time, they show that ambitious reform is both achievable and already underway in many countries.
Visa-free travel expands across Africa
One of the most significant findings of the 2025 report is the continued expansion of visa-free travel for Africans within Africa. In 2016, only 20% of intra-African travel could be undertaken without a visa.
By 2025, that figure had risen to 28.2%, meaning that more than one in four journeys by Africans across the continent now require no visa at all.
This progress translates into millions more Africans able to travel more easily for trade, tourism, business, education and family connections directly supporting regional integration and economic opportunity.
Digitalisation reshapes mobility
The report also highlights the growing role of digital solutions in easing movement.
In 2016, only nine African countries offered electronic visas.
By 2025, that number had increased to 31 countries, reflecting a growing recognition that e-visas reduce administrative burdens, enhance transparency and encourage cross-border economic activity.
Trends in other visa categories show a more mixed picture. Visa-on-arrival access, which increased from 25% in 2016 to a peak of 28% in 2020, declined to 20% in 2025.
Countries requiring visas prior to travel fell from 55% in 2016 to 51% in 2025, though progress fluctuated over the decade. Despite these shifts, the overall direction remains positive: the most restrictive form of travel, pre-travel visa requirements, is gradually declining.
Countries driving reform
At the country level, the 2025 report records notable improvements among Kenya, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, Mali, Egypt and Tanzania.
Over the past decade, several countries have delivered transformative change.
Rwanda improved from an already strong score of 0.822 to a perfect 1.000, while The Gambia recorded one of the most dramatic shifts, rising from 0.496 to 1.000.
Other significant gains include Kenya (0.759 to 0.962), Ghana (0.370 to 0.868), Namibia (0.222 to 0.653), Zambia (0.419 to 0.483), Zimbabwe (0.319 to 0.472) and Malawi (0.315 to 0.472). These advances reflect deliberate policy decisions, targeted administrative reforms and evolving national priorities, demonstrating that visa openness is ultimately a matter of political choice.
From measurement to momentum
Beyond tracking performance, the Africa Visa Openness Index report has become a catalyst for reform.
It enables governments to benchmark progress, encourages peer learning, and highlights the economic costs of closed borders.
As AfDB officials emphasised at the launch, the report is not simply a scorecard; it is an instrument for policy dialogue and accountability, designed to accelerate reform and deepen regional integration.
A more open Africa is within reach
Opening the event, Nnenna Nwabufo, AfDB Vice-President for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery, underscored that visa openness is a strategic development choice.
She noted that freer movement strengthens trade, tourism, investment and trust among African countries, turning integration from a policy aspiration into a lived reality.
“A more open Africa is within reach,” she said, urging countries to translate political commitments into concrete, sustained reforms that will shape the continent’s economic and social future.
From a decade of evidence to a decade of action
Speaking on behalf of Amma Twum-Amoah, AU Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, Dr. Ladislas Nze Bekale reflected on how far Africa has come since 2016.
“Ten years ago, opportunity for many Africans stopped at the edge of a passport page,” the Commissioner’s message recalled. Today, cooperation among African states is steadily rewriting that story.
However, she cautioned that evidence alone is not enough, calling on governments to “turn a decade of evidence into a decade of action” and accelerate progress toward a people-centred Single African Market.
The Africazone is feasible, but momentum must accelerate
Joining the launch virtually, Professor Desta Melaku, Coordinator of the Africa Trade Policy Centre at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), delivered the keynote address and commended the African Development Bank for an excellent and timely report.
He strongly endorsed the Africazone vision articulated in the 2025 Africa Visa Openness Index report, which calls for creation of a free movement zone for subscribing countries – to add momentum, and demonstrate early value, describing it as not only necessary but entirely feasible.
The vision, he noted, aligns squarely with Africa’s ambition to build a truly integrated continental market.
However, Professor Desta cautioned that political momentum has not kept pace with policy ambition. Nearly eight years after the adoption of the African Union’s Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, only four Member States have ratified it.
Faster progress on free movement is needed for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to reach its transformative potential.
He called for closer collaboration between UNECA and the AfDB to translate strong analytical evidence into actionable, country-level strategies capable of overcoming political inertia and accelerating implementation.
Progress is real but ambition must rise
Dr. Joy Kategekwa, Director of the AfDB’s Regional Integration Coordination Office, acknowledged tangible gains while cautioning that progress remains below Africa’s ambitions.
Achieving a visa-free continent will require faster reforms, broader coalitions and sustained political leadership.
At the launch, participants symbolically signed a wall of commitment to a visa-free Africa.
“This is where the next chapter begins,” she said. “It starts with you.”
Link to the Report: https://www.visaopenness.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/2025AVOI_R11_FINALop_12dec25.pdf
