Nigeria’s passport now ranks 101 out of 199 countries globally and 47th in Africa on the Henley Passport Index.
The Henley Passport Index is a ranking of passport strength described as an original and authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a visa.
Henley and Partners, a global citizenship advisory firm based in London, United Kingdom, sa its index was based on the most reliable source of travel data, the International Air Transport Association.
Seychelles, comprising about 115 small islands, is the best-ranked country in Africa, ranking 28th in the world. The island nation is followed by Mauritius (31st), South Africa (57th), Botswana (66th), Namibia (72nd), Lesotho (73rd), Eswatini (75th), Malawi (76th), Kenya and Tanzania (77th), Zambia and Tunisia (78th), The Gambia (80th), Uganda and Cape Verde Islands (81st).
Zimbabwe ranked 83rd, Ghana and Morocco (84th), Sierra Leone and Mozambique (85th), Benin (86th), São Tomé and Príncipe and Rwanda (87th), Mauritania (88th), Burkina Faso (89th), Gabon (90th), Cote d’Ivoire (91st), Senegal, Madagascar and Equatorial Guinea (92nd), Togo and Guinea (93rd), Niger, Mali, Comoro Islands and Chad (94th), Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic and Algeria (95th), Egypt, Burundi and Angola (96th), Liberia and Cameroon (97th), Republic of the Congo (98th), and Djibouti (99th).
Nigeria at 101 ranks ahead of only seven African countries: Ethiopia (102nd), South Sudan (103rd), Eritrea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (104th), Sudan (106th), Libya (107th), and Somalia (111th).
Nigeria at 147/101 indicates that the country’s passport is the 8th least wanted on the continent.
Globally, Japan leads, followed by Singapore in 2nd, South Korea and Germany tied at third. Italy, Finland, Spain and Luxembourg were ranked 4th, while Denmark and Austria round out the top five.
The company, on July 6, stated, “… with the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics just weeks away, and the country in a ‘quasi’ state of emergency, Japan nonetheless retains its hold on the number one spot on the HPI — which is based on exclusive data from the IATA — with a theoretical visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 193.
“While the dominance of European passports in the top 10 has been a given for most of the index’s 16-year history, the pre-eminence of three Asian states — Japan, Singapore, and South Korea — is the new normal.
Singapore remains in second place, with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 192, and South Korea continues to share joint-third place with Germany, each with a score of 191.”