The governments of Zimbabwe and Botswana have recently decided to eliminate visa restrictions for each other’s nationals.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa confirmed last week that he and Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi have agreed on this decision, following a discussion he had with President Maisi, as reported by BBC.
Such an agreement was achieved in a bid to provide free movement of each other’s citizens, VisaGuide.World reports.
We impose constraints on ourselves, which are more colonial than they are patriotic, so we agreed that he (President Masisi) himself on his side and myself on my side are going to instruct the relevant departments to ease these constraints of movement of people between our two countries.
Recently, many African nations have implemented similar decisions in an effort to foster intra-continental trade, facilitate the movement of people and boost tourism.
Last month, Rwanda launched a visa-free entry policy for the entire continent, thus allowing all African citizens to enter without the need to obtain a visa first. Rwanda is now the fourth African country to offer visa-free entry for all Africans, after Benin, The Gambia and Seychelles.
Whereas Kenya is aiming to take a similar step in the near future. In October this year, Kenyan President William Ruto revealed his plans to eliminate the visa restrictions for all African tourists and travelers by the end of this year.
On the other hand, Ghana and South Africa reached a visa-free agreement last October, enabling citizens of both countries to enter one another’s territory and stay up to 90 days without the need for visas. In 2022, South Africa reached a similar agreement with Kenya.
In a bid to remove the requirement for visas and allow unlimited travel across the continent for all African nationals, the African Union (AU) introduced the African passport in 2016. However, this passport hasn’t been widely available.
This came as a result of concerns about smuggling, security, and possible effects on local labor markets. The African passport’s goal of enabling all Africans to travel without a visa has been delayed by these concerns.
In general terms, the passports of African countries have the lowest rank according to the VisaGuide.World Passport Index. The last one on this list is Somalia, ranked 199th, and its citizens can travel visa-free to only ten countries.