Relaxation of Visa Restrictions a New Pathway for Deeper African Cooperation

By Prince Kurupati

African nations in the recent past have demonstrated a clear will and desire to move away from spewing words to taking concrete action when it comes to seeking and implementing African solutions for African problems. One of the main challenges that has bedevilled Africa for so long has been a reluctance to embrace each other in the spirit of brotherhood preferring to prioritise trade and cooperation with foreign nations. Trade volumes for many African countries demonstrate this as most inflows are from Eastern and Western nations even though the African continent on its own can self-sustain.

The enhanced desire to cooperate has been described by many African diplomats and political analysts as the renaissance of the Pan-Africanism spirit. Perhaps the clearest example of this is the emergence of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) IN 2021. The AFCFTA among other things was created to provide a single market for goods and services facilitated by the movement of persons to deepen the economic integration of the African continent. Inversely, the rationale behind creating AFCFTA was that an increase in intra-African trade would in turn have positive spillover effects that will positively impact African countries hence leading to the socio-economic development of the continent.

In the same spirit of Pan Africanism, African leaders drawing inspiration from the early successes of the AFCFTA are taking worthy steps to ease visa restrictions with each other. In the past couple of years, several such partnerships have been entered into by many nations. This past month, the President of Angola Joao Lourenco and the Kenyan President William Ruto met in Nairobi Kenya and agreed to ease visa restrictions between their two countries.

Addressing the media after their meeting, Kenyan President William Ruto that trade between Kenya and Angola has increased immensely over the past four years. The potential for more cooperation between the two countries is even higher and as such, to spur the trade volumes, the two nations saw it fit to ease visa restrictions and hence unlock the underlying potential. “There is a huge scope for these numbers to go up if we strengthen our interconnection,” President Ruto said in relation to the current Kenya-Angola trade figures.

The proposed plans as relayed by President Ruto will see residents of both Kenya and Angola not requiring a visa upon landing at their destination. Angola has demonstrated that it's ready to handle higher volumes of trade thanks to the completion of the $3.8 billion airport in Luanda. The Agostinho Neto International Airport can handle 15 million passengers per year and up to 130,000 tons of cargo annually.

Earlier in July, Kenyan President William Ruto also adopted a visa-free regime with Congo-Brazzaville. While addressing members of Parliament on a state visit to Congo-Brazzaville, President Ruto said, “We, the Government of Kenya, have already decided that nationals of Congo-Brazzaville will no longer need visas to enter Kenya. This will enable us to increase trade between our two countries. Our peoples, businessmen and others need this”.

The news on the visa-free regime between Kenya and Angola comes just a few weeks after Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo entered into the same deal. The two neighbouring countries signed a memorandum of understanding to increase trade and adopt a visa-free regime. In a joint statement, the two countries said, “The two parties recognised that their shared geography, culture and history impose obligations on them, particularly in terms of ongoing dialogue, in the interest of their respective peoples. To this end, the two parties agreed to remove entry visa fees on reciprocal bases to facilitate free movement of people”.

In the same month of October, Ghana and South Africa signed an agreement for the mutual waiver of visas. The deal which takes effect in November 2023 will see passport holders from both countries stay in their destination for 90 days visa-free in a calendar year. Earlier on, South Africa signed a similar agreement with Kenya. With both Ghana and Kenya, South Africa also discussed plans to lift barriers that limit trade.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame also joined in saying “Any African, can get on a plane to Rwanda whenever they wish, and they will not pay a thing to enter our country”. President Kagame said this while speaking at the 23rd Global Summit of the World Travel & Tourism Council. Kagame's declaration means that Rwanda becomes the fourth African nation to offer visa-free entry to all African residents.

The Chairman at Nest Marketing Rwanda Sosthene Mardi said the moves by African nations to adopt visa-free regimes is a positive step in the right direction. Mardi said many great benefits will be derived from this which include the boosting of intra-Africa trade, commerce & tourism, facilitating labour mobility, intra-Africa knowledge & skills transfer, promoting pan-African identity, improving trans-border infrastructure, fostering a comprehensive approach to border management and promoting rule of law, human rights and public health.

The increased cooperation between and among African nations as demonstrated by the numerous visa-free regimes being signed proves that African nations are now embracing intra-African trade. The 2022 Africa Visa Openness Index report showed that “African countries (are) making progress in their freedom of travel policies, most of which had been severely curtailed by the Covid-19 crisis”.

The Africa Visa Openness Index report is a publication prepared by the African Development Bank Group in collaboration with the African Union Commission. The report tracks visa policies adopted by African governments on three main criteria that is, whether entry to citizens from other African countries is visa-free, if a visa on arrival can be obtained, and whether travellers are required to obtain visas ahead of travelling to other African countries.

The 2022 Africa Visa Openness Index report concluded with these overall stats:

• Africa now has an even split between travel that is visa-free and travel where a visa may be obtained on arrival at the destination country
• Four countries (Benin, The Gambia, Rwanda and Seychelles) offer visa-free entry to all African residents
• 24 African countries offer an eVisa
• 48 countries offer visa-free travel to the nationals of at least one other African country
• 42 countries offer visa-free travel to the nationals of at least five other African countries.

In a bold move, Kenyan President William Ruto said his country is ready to join the three countries that offer visa-free entry to all African citizens by year-end (2023). President Ruto in a statement at the Three Basins Climate Change Conference in Brazzaville, Congo "By the end of this year, no African will need a visa to enter Kenya. The time has come to understand the importance of doing trade between us... It is time we realize the importance of trading among ourselves and allowing goods, services, people and ideas to move freely across the continent."

*Culled from November Issue of PAV Magazine.