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Released on the 19th of May, Africa Visa Openness report still considers Morocco as one of the least open countries when it comes to visas. The Think tank put together by the African Development Bank, the African Union Commission and the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Africa, ranks the Kingdom 45th out of a list that contains 55 African countries. Morocco has retained last year’s score which was 0,167.
The ranking is based on three major index categories namely Visa required, Visa on arrival and No Visa to determine the restrictions that every country applies to visitors coming from other neighboring nations. And as authors of the report indicate, the measuring is a way of «tracking changes in country scores over time to show which countries are making improvements that support freer movement of people across Africa».
According to the data provided by the survey, many African nations have generally made progress when it comes to their visa openness. Numbers suggest that Africans don’t need a visa when traveling to 22% of the continent’s countries in 2016 unlike 2015 when the percentage was only around 20%. 25% in 2016, as opposed to 24% last year, of Africa’s destinations provide a visa on arrival to visitors. Furthermore, 13 African countries out of 55 offer e-visas while 21 out of 55 states have moved upwards in rankings on the index since 2015.
Morocco, not very open as a destination
Things are different when it comes to Morocco. In a list of 55 African countries, the Kingdom is still one of the most closed destinations in the continent allowing only 9 African countries the entry to its territory without a visa. It offers no visas on arrival and obliges visitors from 45 countries to get a visa prior to arrival. Other countries; on the other hand, have proven that they are more open than Morocco by putting fewer regulations such as Mauritania (7th) which made it to the ranking’s top 20 list, Tunisia (23rd) and South Africa (34th).
The report was topped by Seychelles (1st), the East African archipelago, followed by Uganda (2nd) and Togo (3rd). The idea behind this annual ranking is to know which country is allowing free movement for African citizens across their continent. «Business leaders looked at the impact open visa policies would have for high-priority sectors in the economy, from tourism to investment. Development institutions flagged the potential that freer movement of people could have in driving Africa’s regional integration efforts and promoting human capital», authors of the report concluded.
