Africa’s Visa-Free Travel Movement Is Growing. Could This Be The Continent’s Biggest Tourism Shift?

For many African travelers, visiting a neighboring country still means visa applications, fees, and waiting periods before booking a single ticket. The African Development Bank and the African Union Commission have described the fact that Africans still require visas to enter most African countries as “one of the starkest contradictions to the continent’s aspirations for regional integration.” The latest data shows the gap widening in some places. According to the 2025 Africa Visa Openness Index, the share of intra-African travel scenarios that require a visa ahead of travel rose from 47.1% in 2024 to 51.1% in 2025, and visa-on-arrival facilities dropped to 20.4%, their lowest level ever.

Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Nigeria, and Somalia all switched from broad visa-on-arrival policies to requiring a visa before travel. A small group of governments has moved in the opposite direction. On May 18, 2026, Togo removed its visa requirement for African citizens, becoming one of the few countries to waive visas for nationals of every African state.

How Togo’s Visa-Free Policy Works For African Travelers

Togo’s head of government, Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, President of the Council, ordered a full visa exemption for African nationals with a valid national passport. The exemption covers stays of up to 30 days, and the Council of Ministers adopted the decree formalizing the policy on May 26, 2026.

Before departure, travelers must register on the government platform voyage.gouv.tg at least 24 hours before arrival and obtain a slip to present at border posts. “Immigration formalities relating to prior registration on the dedicated government platform remain in force,” Security Minister Calixte Batossie Madjoulba said in an official statement, translated from French.

The minister added that the exemption does not override laws on irregular entry, illegal stays, or national security. The platform’s procedures page states that its current process mainly concerns air travelers and will be updated as the system extends to land and maritime borders. Non-African travelers who require a visa to enter Togo are not covered by the exemption and should continue to follow the existing application process.

Africa’s Visa-Free Map Is Growing, But The Rules Vary By Country

In the 2025 Africa Visa Openness Index, only Rwanda and The Gambia offered visa-free entry to citizens of every other African country. Benin dropped to fourth place after introducing visas for citizens of five countries, while Kenya became the third-most visa-free country after updating its electronic travel authorization system to exempt citizens of 52 African countries.

Rwanda’s current policy dates to November 2023, when President Paul Kagame announced it at the World Travel and Tourism Council’s Global Summit in Kigali and told delegates that “Africans are the future of global tourism,” Africanews reported.

Ghana took a different route on May 25, 2026, when President John Mahama launched the country’s electronic visa portal and announced that African passport holders would no longer pay visa fees to enter Ghana. African visitors still apply through the e-visa system, making Ghana’s policy fee-free rather than visa-free. The ministry tied the decision to the African Union’s Agenda 2063 flagship program on the African Passport and free movement of people.

The African Union adopted its Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons in 2018, initially focusing on the right of entry for visa-free short stays. Mali, Niger, Rwanda, and São Tomé and Príncipe are the only countries to have ratified it. However, 32 have signed, leaving the protocol short of the 15 ratifications it needs to enter into force, according to the Africa Visa Openness Index.

Could Visa-Free Travel Reshape Tourism In Africa?

When Kagame announced Rwanda’s policy in 2023, data cited from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa showed that 60% of tourists visiting the continent still came from outside Africa. Governments easing entry rules have increasingly presented those changes as a way to encourage more travel within the continent. Ghana’s Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the country expected its policy to boost tourism and intra-African trade, The EastAfrican reported.

Togo’s government similarly said its visa exemption was intended to support greater movement between African countries while strengthening Togo’s role as a regional center for services, business, and cultural exchange. In the 2025 index, Togo was among the countries that had removed visa-on-arrival facilities and adopted an e-visa process, less than a year before its full exemption for African nationals took effect.

Across the continent, visa-free travel scenarios reached 28.2% in 2025, their highest level ever, compared with 20% in 2016, and 39 countries have improved their openness scores since the index began, per the Africa Visa Openness Index. The same data shows movement in both directions, with Algeria, Angola, Benin, Tunisia, and Uganda all moving citizens of at least one African country from visa-free access to visa-required status in 2025.

The report describes recent changes as “nuanced and incremental rather than bold and progressive.” Visa-free reciprocity across the continent moved only slightly during 2025, from 20.3% to 20.5%. The 2025 report also examines electronic travel authorizations in a section titled “a visa by another name?,” noting that Seychelles’ travel authorization is classified as an e-Visa.