Nigeria’s passport rose one rank in the Henley Passport Index this month, but the number of countries Nigerians can actually visit without a visa hasn’t budged.
The 20th-anniversary edition of the index, released Tuesday by Henley & Partners using data from the International Air Transport Association, placed Nigeria 90th out of 199 passports worldwide, tied with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Turkmenistan.
Nigerian passport holders can travel visa-free, or with a visa-on-arrival, to just 44 of the world’s 227 tracked destinations – unchanged from April, when Nigeria briefly touched 89th place.
Nigeria’s climb from 95th in January 2024 to its current position has come almost entirely because countries below it – several battered by conflict, sanctions or state collapse – fell further, not because Nigeria’s own mobility improved.
Nigeria’s passport ranked 62nd when Henley launched the index in 2006. It has fallen almost every year since: 67th by 2009, 84th by 2011, a low of 103rd in 2022, and now 90th – a net decline of 28 places over 20 years. This is even as the Henley Passport Index’s headline finding is that the average passport’s power has nearly doubled globally, from 58 visa-free destinations in 2006 to 108 today.
The contrast with Nigeria’s African peers is stark. Seychelles holds the continent’s strongest passport at 23rd globally, with visa-free access to 155 destinations. Mauritius sits at 26th with 148. South Africa, at 49th, still reaches 101 destinations – more than double Nigeria’s tally.
Even Botswana (61st, 81 destinations), Kenya (68th, 70) and Ghana (70th, 67) outrank Nigeria comfortably. Nigeria now trails not just the continent’s traditional mobility leaders but most of West Africa.
Comparing the Passport Index against the Global Peace Index over 20 years, Henley found a strong statistical relationship between peacefulness and passport power – but also identified stark exceptions, where countries like the United States and Israel enjoy passport strength far exceeding what their peace rankings alone would predict.
For most of the Global South, that dynamic cuts the other way. As Professor Mehari Maru of the European University Institute and Johns Hopkins University argued in research cited in Henley’s own press materials, elements of contemporary visa policy can reinforce structural bias against African travelers – meaning peace and stability at home are necessary for mobility gains, but nowhere near sufficient, in a global visa system still tilted toward wealthier, more geopolitically connected states.
Where Nigerians can actually go
Based on Henley’s most recent published country-specific data, Nigerian passport holders can travel visa-free, via visa-on-arrival, or with an electronic travel authorization to:
West Africa: Benin, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Niger, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, The Gambia, Cape Verde.
East & Southern Africa: Kenya, Seychelles, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi, Madagascar, Comoros, Djibouti.
Caribbean & Americas: Barbados, Dominica, Haiti, St. Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat.
Asia & Pacific: Cambodia, Maldives, Timor-Leste, Fiji, Samoa, Palau, Kiribati, Micronesia, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Niue.
Nigeria lost visa-on-arrival access to several countries in recent years, including Ethiopia – which ended the privilege for Nigerians in October 2022 – along with Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Somalia.
The exact composition of Nigeria’s 44 destinations can shift by one or two entries between editions as individual countries adjust entry rules, and travelers are advised to confirm current requirements directly with Henley’s country-specific data or the relevant embassy before travel.
Discover more from Pluboard
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.