The AVOI measures the extent to which African countries are open to visitors from other African countries. The AVOI analyses each country’s visa requirements to show which African countries most facilitate travel to their territory.
For each country, the AVOI calculates the number of African countries whose citizens must obtain a visa before travelling there, the number of countries whose citizens may obtain a visa upon arrival, and the number of countries whose citizens can enter visa-free. Each country is then assigned an AVOI score and ranked accordingly.
First published in 2016, the AVOI also tracks changes in countries’ scores over time. It does the same for the eight AU-recognised RECs. The report analyses these trends in light of other developments in Africa and in the world.
Data for this year’s edition was collected in July and August 2024. As is the case with all previous editions, the main source of data and information was the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
“The Ten-Year Strategy outlines how the African Development Bank Group (the Bank )will invest in Africa’s best asset: its vibrant men and women. Africa’s population, which is fast growing in the world, presents the continent with an unparalleled demographic window of opportunity.” 2 Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina President, African Development Bank Group
“The Ten-Year Strategy outlines how the African Development Bank Group (the Bank )will invest in Africa’s best asset: its vibrant men and women. Africa’s population, which is fast growing in the world, presents the continent with an unparalleled demographic window of opportunity.” 2
Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina President, African Development Bank Group
The African Development Bank (AfDB) was established to promote regional integration in Africa. It is playing a pivotal role through its new Ten-Year Strategy (2024–2033), hereinafter TYS – a core part of which is the Integrate Africa pillar.
Free movement of people is a cornerstone of regional integration and of the Bank’s work in advancing the African Union’s (AU) vision to create the world’s largest single market in Africa – the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Greater mobility of Africans across the continent will facilitate the creation of larger, more attractive markets – elevating intra-African trade to more consequential levels.
Liberal visa policies allow businesspeople to move freely across Africa and result in higher levels of investment, skills mobility, expansion of the range of goods and services on offer, and contribute to the overall greater economic activity and prospects for economic growth.
To deliver on Integrate Africa, the Bank's Regional Integration Strategy Framework seeks to expand the size of the regional market through building transformative regional infrastructure, enhancing productive capacity for industrialisation, boosting intra-African trade and investment and facilitating the movement of people across borders. The AVOI plays a central role in operationalising this strategy, by tracking the trends in easing people mobility across the continent.
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2 afdb.org
