By the end of this year, William Ruto, the president of Kenya, plans to eliminate the need for visas for all travellers from Africa.
President Ruto stressed the need to remove visa restrictions among African countries during his speech at an international conference, arguing that they are ineffective.
The African Union (AU) has long worked to make it easier for people to travel within the continent without a visa. There have been bilateral and regional agreements, but there hasn’t been much movement towards fully free travel.
According to an AU-backed assessment, as of 2022, the only countries that allow admission to all African people without a visa are Seychelles, The Gambia, and Benin.
However, many African countries have been making progress in streamlining admission procedures and lowering limitations for certain nations, as evidenced by the Africa’s Visa Openness Index, which rates the continent’s accessibility to tourists from other African countries. Kenya placed 31st on this rating in 2022 out of 54 African states.
African youth should not be kept behind the boundaries of either Europe or their own continent, according to President Ruto.
The declaration was made by the President at a summit centred on the preservation of the biggest rainforests on Earth.
