Africa: Rwanda has regained the top position as the most visa-open country as per 2025 Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI). The country is grabbing the top spot since 2023 due to its visa-free regime.
The top position is claimed by Rwanda and Gambia while Kenya came third. Whereas, Benin ranked as fourth after introducing visa requirements for citizens of five countries.
AVOI 2025 report marked the tenth consecutive year of monitoring African Visa Policies, which is a joint initiative of the African Development Bank and the African Union (AU) Commission. The index measures the extent to which African countries are open to visitors from other African countries. It analysed each country via requirement to show which nation is on the continent’s most facilitated travel to their territory.
According to the AVOI report, the combined visa openness score across Africa is 0.445, which is lower than in the past three years and is similar to 2021. In year 2025, 20 African countries changed their visa policies that affected citizens of one or more African nations.
11 countries improved their scores, nine decreased and 34 countries made no changes by maintaining their previous ratings. Several visa-free travel scenarios across Africa increased slightly from 803 in 2024 to 814 in 2025, accounting for 28.2% of intra-African travel scenarios, which is the highest level recorded since the index began.
Rwanda has offered visa-free access to all African travellers, its citizens still need visas or visas-on-arrival to enter some countries. They can travel visa-free to 16 African nations by obtaining visas on arrival in another 16 countries and must secure a visa in 21 countries.
Director of the regional Integration at African Development Bank Group – Joy Kategekwa said that over the 10 years of AVOI, visa-free mobility in Africa has shown ‘full of promise’ but it still requires the ‘accelerated action’ to reach its full potential.
Kategekwa emphasised that Africans move and do so mostly in Africa. It is here that most Africans see the opportunity for their dreams to actualise. And it is here that we must facilitate with more vigour, the pace of visa-free mobility.
She said that the visa-free policies support the economic growth of Africa by enabling trade industry and allowing Africans to reach opportunities and travel to places where they are most needed.
She further added that it will take creativity and innovation, by building and learning from those African countries that has taken the leap to grant visa-free access to fellow African citizens and understanding the systems that they have created to manage border movement and anticipate challenges, while managing rather than avoiding the risk.