Kenya ranked highly among Africa peers in visa openness policy

 

Kenya has been ranked highly on the continent as one of the countries that allows free movement of people across the country's borders with limited restrictions.

This is according to a report compiled by the African Development Bank and the African Union that evaluates the visa requirements that governments in all 54 African countries have placed on each other.

Kenya has been placed fifteenth overall with the country allowing residents from 18 countries to visit without obtaining a visa while residents from 30 other countries can obtain the visa on arrival at the airport.

"Creating larger, more attractive markets and supporting intra-African trade are boosted by greater mobility.When business people and traders move more easily across the continent thanks to liberal visa policies, they bring higher levels of investment, fresh skills and expand the range of goods and services on offer," stated the report in part.

Kenya has since seen its score improve year on year with the country said to impose visa restrictions on just six African countries. A report from aviation industry think tank Forward Keys released late last year reported Kenya had the highest increase of airline traffic in Africa over the last one year attributed to several major conferences hosted in the country in the past two years and a recovering tourism sector.

Passenger arrivals to the country between January and September 2016 is reported to have gone up by 14.9 per cent compared to a similar period last year. Seychelles emerged top in the index with the country reported as having no visa restriction for visitors from all 54 African countries.