A passport with an airplane ticket. Picture: Unsplash
The Seychelles, Mauritius and South Africa are the top 3 most powerful passports in Africa. Henley & Partners released its Passport Index based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA) ranking global passports.
The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations and is updated monthly.
Africa’s top 10 most powerful passports include; Seychelles allowing holders to access 156 destinations visa-free, Mauritius (150), South Africa (106), Namibia (81), Lesotho (79), Eswatini (77), Kenya (75), Malawi (75), Tanzania (73), Morocco (72) and The Gambia (71).
Singapore’s passport still remains the world’s most powerful passport ranking 1st and allowing holders access to 195 destinations visa-free.
According to Henley & Partners, the city-state also set a new record score with its citizens now enjoying access to the highest number travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free.
Henley & Partners also noted that the UK ranked 4th place despite its visa-free destination score falling to 190 while the US, continued its now decade-long slide down the index, dropping down to 8th spot, with access to just 186 destinations visa-free.
Former passport powerhouses, the UK and the US held joint 1st place on the index 10 years ago in 2014.
The global mobility partners also noted that The United Arab Emirates made it into the Top 10 for the first time, having added an impressive 152 destinations since the index’s inception in 2006 to achieve its current visa-free score of 185, and rising a remarkable 53 places in the ranking from 62nd to 9th position in the process.
Commenting on the July 2024 edition of the Henley Global Mobility Report, Dr Christian Kaelin, chairperson of Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index concept, said the general trend over the past two decades has been towards greater travel freedom, with the global average number of destinations travellers are able to access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024.
“However, the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now wider than it has ever been, with top-ranked Singapore able to access a record-breaking 169 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan,” he added.