The irony of welcoming a tourist even as visa regimes still stifle Africans within

The launch of the East African Tourism portal at The Pearl of Africa Expo in Kampala earlier this week is yet another example of the EAC being one of the most integrated regions on the continent. Though it only includes the three Northern Corridor partner states of Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya, with Tanzania and Burundi yet to buy into the initiative for a single tourist visa, it nevertheless hints at the realm of the possible. With all the varied range of tourist products and destinations the five countries have to offer, it can not only enhance the tourist experience – both local and foreign – but deepen the attraction as a single market destination with possibly better purse implications for players in the public and private sectors across the region. This is obvious. While I will not delve into why Tanzania and Burundi are yet to join the single visa initiative, it is also symptomatic of how African countries are the most closed globally despite the obvious benefits. The International Chamber of Commerce’s Open Markets Index (OMI) scores countries on the continent either “below average or very weak” (2-2.99 and 1-1.99, respectively). And yet this is nowhere better reflected as in the visa regimes within the continent. For instance, while any African visiting Rwanda can conveniently get a visa at the airport or any point of entry into the country, Rwandans have to endure the hustle-laden process of prior visa application before visiting more than 75 per cent of African countries. Only 13 of 55 African countries offer visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to all Africans, according to the African Development Bank’s Africa Visa Openness Report 2016. Or, take the illustrative example of the Nigerian magnate Aliko Dangote, one of Africa’s wealthiest and foremost single investor on the continent, as he recounted at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, last year. While on a business trip to South Africa in an incident reported widely in local and international media, he helplessly watched his American staff being waved through customs by immigration officials just because of their nationality. Europeans and North Americans have easier access to African countries. Americans, for example, can travel to 20 African countries visa-free or by getting visas on arrival compared to the 13 countries for Africans. It so happened that Dangote had his visa in one of his eight passports, which he had forgotten in his jet. And with none of the immigration officials recognising him or caring who he was, he had to suffer the humiliation of being prevented from entry amid much noisy hustle before one of his assistance could fetch the visa. Indeed, on a similar turn, the perceived international “power” vested in each African country’s passport has been receiving considerable interest locally on Facebook and other social media with the much “liked” and shared report on the Arton Capital’s Passport Index. The Index ranks national passports by how easily they can visit other territories – either without a visa or with a visa on arrival. “Citizens from Seychelles hold the most powerful passport in Africa, with the ability to easily access 126 countries globally. Mauritius has the second-strongest passport (with admittance to 118 markets), followed by South Africa (90), Botswana (69) and Lesotho (66). However, Seychelles and Rwanda are the biggest gainers in Africa, meaning their passports have strengthened the most when compared to 2016. Each now has painless entry to two extra countries. For example, Rwandan passport holders can now access 48 territories, compared to 46 last year.” And yet, perhaps, it is not so much the power of a country’s passport relative to territories it may access, but the will to welcome. Sample that East and West African countries have least restrictions on travel for Africans, as noted in yet another report, the Africa Regional Integration Index. Other regions have not eased, let alone abolished visa requirements less than two years to the 2018 deadline stipulated by the African Union under the Agenda 2063. Note also the widely noted hurdles to meeting the deadline, including fears of insecurity and terrorism, not to mention the xenophobia and high unemployment rates on the continent.

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The irony of welcoming a tourist even as visa regimes still stifle Africans within