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By Chinelo Obogo
A recent report by Daily Sun revealed that Nigeria now ranks sixth in the African Development Bank’s 2024 Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI), trailing behind countries like Rwanda, Seychelles, Benin, and The Gambia.
These four countries are top performers, offering visa-free access to African visitors.
The AVOI score gauges a country’s openness to visitors from other African nations, calculated by evaluating the number of countries that require a visa, offer a visa on arrival, or provide visa-free access. Scores range from 0 to 1, with 0 representing the most restrictive policies and 1 indicating the most welcoming approach.
The report examines each country’s visa policies and highlights those that are most welcoming to travelers.
In response to Nigeria’s ranking, tourism expert, Ikechi Ukoh, told Daily Sun that being ranked sixth most open country in Africa out of 54 nations is a “massive achievement,” particularly given Nigeria’s previous reputation as a challenging destination for other Africans.
However, Ukoh raised concerns that Nigeria may not fully reap the benefits of its improved ranking in tourism, due to the lack of a comprehensive national strategy to draw African tourists.
“Rwanda, Gambia, and Seychelles are true tourism success stories based on visa openness. Looking at the list of countries in Africa, you’ll see that those where tourism contributes over 40% to export income are also in the top 10 of the AVOI ranking. Lagos, Cross River, and a few other states have been marketing globally, but not at the scale expected from a country as large as Nigeria. Compared to Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and The Gambia, Nigeria is yet to start. Hopefully, the country will wake up soon. With the success of Arik and Virgin Nigeria, visa openness could become a huge advantage, as Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Dubai have done,” he said.
Ukoh also noted that while Nigeria now has the right visa policy, its airlines have lost prominence.
“Air Peace hasn’t been able to replicate Arik’s reach, as it hasn’t connected as many destinations. Ibom Air has not yet filled the void left by Virgin Nigeria’s West African connections, only flying to Accra on the West Coast.
“Our airports haven’t improved their connectivity since 2010, even the newly built ones in Abuja and Lagos. There are no top-quality transfer and interlining desks or sections at our airports. Over the past year, I’ve traveled through airports in Lagos, Abuja, Cotonou, Accra, Lome, Abidjan, Banjul, and Dakar, and I can tell you that these airports offer better transfer connections than Lagos or Abuja.
“Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events (MICE) are the lowest-hanging fruits for most countries, but Nigeria has no MICE strategy, and we are still far from becoming an air cargo logistics hub. I suggest that Nigeria develop a comprehensive national strategy to connect the dots and grow its economy based on the policy of visa openness. We have all the resources to make this happen,” he concluded.
