Rwanda has been ranked the number one country with the best visa regime.
The 2023 Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI) has ranked Rwanda as the top country in Africa to allow other Africans to enters its borders without a visa payment requirement prior to entry.
The index measures the extent to which African countries are open to visitors from other African countries.
“Rwanda toped this year’s (2023) visa openness index with a score of 1.00 which is the highest score,” the Index report said
“Rwanda joins Benin, The Gambia, and Seychelles in extending visa-free travel to citizens of the entire continent,”
The report also shows that other ten African countries came among the top ten performers with an average score of 0.910 out of a possible 1.00, almost twice the continental average of 0.485.
The report also shows that now 24 countries out of the 54 African member states offer an e-visa, almost three times as many as in 2016. However, 33 countries (out of 54) offer visa-free travel to citizens of at least 10 other
countries.
Regional Assessment
The West African countries continue to lead the rankings with 7 of the continent’s top 10 performers coming from West Africa. Within ECOWAS, 97% of country-to-country travel routes are visa-free for citizens of the region.
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 a 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 regional economic communities recognized by the African Union.
The report analyzes these trends in light of other developments in Africa and the world.
Data for this year’s edition was collected in July and August 2023. The main source of information was the International Air Transport Association.
Methodology
How the AVOI calculates each country’s score Scores and rankings. AVOI scores range from 0 to 1, where 0 designates countries with the most restrictive visa policies and 1 designates countries with the most welcoming policies.
The higher a country’s index score, the more “visa-open” is the country and the higher it ranks. Categories and weightings. To calculate each country’s score, the AVOI assesses the country’s visa policy vis-à-vis each of the other 53 countries in the continent and classifies each policy in one of three categories.
The AVOI gives each category a weighting where Visa before travel weighs 0, Visa on arrival 0.8, Visa-free 1
