Botswana passport makes top four in Africa
Oarabile Mosikare | Tuesday April 21, 2015 12:48
The Seychelles has the most powerful passport in Africa followed by Mauritius, South Africa and then Botswana.
The info-graphic ranked countries travelling document according to the number of nations their passport holders can enter either without a visa, or with a visa on arrival.
The research shows that passport holders from Seychelles can visit 126 of 194 countries in the world without having to apply for a visa. The Mauritian passport allows visa free or visa on arrival travel to 123 countries.
The South African passport holders enjoy the same service in 97 countries with the Botswana one getting access to 73 nations.
“The fourth most powerful African passport is that held by citizens of Botswana, which is ranked 58th in the (world) Index.
However, the Botswana passport only offers visa-free entry to 73 countries, which makes it 57 percent poorer in terms of access than the five highest-ranked passports: citizens of Finland, Sweden, the UK, Germany and the United States are able to travel visa-free to 174 destinations around the globe,” reads the report published in the Africa Cradle.
Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy, features in joint 33rd position.
The Afghanistan passport is the lowest ranked in the world.
The Seychelles passport is ranked 28th in the world. Strict visa requirements between African countries have been blamed for holding back economic growth.
“Many of us can only dream about the freedom to travel without any visa restrictions and while South Africans enjoy one of the widest ranges of visa-free travel options on the African continent - with its visa-free access extending to 97 of the world’s 194 countries - the slow progress in the approval of something like a uni-visa for Southern African Development Community (SADC) Countries only serves to add more pipe than pleasure,” the info-graphic said.