Regional reciprocity is a measure of how aligned the visa regimes of individual member states within a REC are with respect to one another. Reciprocity on its own only measures the bilateral alignment of visa policies within a REC and makes no claim on visa openness. A high reciprocity score therefore indicates that the visa policies between the members of a REC are largely harmonised, while a low score indicates that visa policies are largely mismatched. This alignment can relate to reciprocity on visa-free policies, but similarly measures alignment of visa-on-arrival, and visa-required-ahead-of-travel policies. This report focuses on how REC members extend visa-free-entry policies to one another on a reciprocal basis.
A high score in the visa-free reciprocity metric is therefore indicative of a high degree of harmonisation of visa-free policies within a REC. Countries are generally open to arrivals of each other’s nationals and permit easy access, without the need for a visa. High scores in this variable tend to be reflective not only of regional policies on the intra-REC free movement of persons, but also high levels of adoption and compliance with such protocols. RECs with high scores tend to be well integrated economically too.
Low reciprocity scores emanate from a lack of harmonisation of visa policies, one country may require a visa on arrival, while the other offers visa-free entry. Or where both countries compel a visa, but one offers a visa on arrival while the other requires nationals to apply for a visa ahead of travel. Scenarios such as these suggest a lack of regional policy framework on the movement of persons, poor adoption, or point towards specific issues underlying the bilateral relationship of these countries.
The scores above capture aggregate positive (visa-free) reciprocity within the respective RECs: the extent to which member states grant nationals of each other visa-free access on a reciprocal basis. Overall, there has been a modest decline in the level of visa-free reciprocity, to 20.3% in 2024, compared to 21% in 2023. Within the confines of RECs, reciprocity is generally much higher, ranging from 99% (ECOWAS) to 14% (IGAD).
ECOWAS (99%) remains the leader in visa-free reciprocity and improved slightly over 2023, although political developments remain a concern.
AMU (70%) has seen a significant improvement in visa-free reciprocity (2023: 60%).
SADC (60%) records an unchanged visa-free reciprocity score, with a slight improvement in the visa-required metric (fewer visa-ahead-of-travel scenarios).
EAC (54%) records a lower score (2023: 71%), mainly due to Somalia (a full EAC member since early 2024 ) requiring a visa on arrival from all travellers. The region would otherwise have maintained an unchanged visa-free reciprocity score.
CEN-SAD (34%) sees a slight improvement in visa-free reciprocity (2023: 32%), with fewer member states now requiring a visa from each other’s citizens ahead of travel.
ECCAS (33%) shows a slight improvement in visa-free reciprocity (2023: 31%) following a decrease where visas are required ahead of travel.
COMESA (17%) has lower visa-free reciprocity (2023: 21%), along with a slight decline in the visa-on-arrival reciprocity metric.
IGAD (14%) sees lower regional visa-free reciprocity and higher scores for visa-on-arrival reciprocity within the REC, and unchanged visa-required reciprocity.
The charts on visa reciprocity in this section depict the extent to which the three types of visa policies measured by the AVOI (visa-free, visa-on-arrival, and visa-before-travel) are reciprocated among the member states of the eight AU-recognised RECs. The charts rank countries in descending order of reciprocal visa openness: at the top are those countries whose visa-free policies are reciprocated the most by others within the REC.
Countries’ rankings in the reciprocity charts do not relate to countries’ rankings on the AVOI. Neither do they necessarily reflect the average visa openness of each country’s REC. Instead, they show the extent to which countries’ visa policies – whether liberal or restrictive – are reciprocated by the other members of their REC.
If a country ranks highly on the AVOI but experiences low visa-free reciprocity within its REC, the cause may be that its REC has not developed a structure for harmonising its members’ visa policies, or that the country is not implementing agreed policy. It could also be that the country’s fellow REC members do not reciprocate the country’s visa-open stance.
