Ghana has become the latest country to make it easier for other Africans to visit. But it’s still far too hard to get around the continent.
Africa’s not so open borders
When Ghana announced last Friday that it was introducing a free visa regime for all African citizens, president John Dramani Mahama said it reflected the country’s commitment to pan-African ideals. It is also part of a trend across the continent that has seen a succession of states making it easier for other Africans to visit.
Ghana’s policy, which will go into effect on May 25th, does not abolish visas for African passport holders but it makes them free, an important consideration in a continent where visa fees can be steep. The government said its e-visa scheme would be linked to an API-PNR (advanced passenger information and passenger name record) system and international crime databases to ensure the country’s security is not compromised.
The East African Community (EAC) member countries Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo allow one another’s citizens to enter with just a passport or national ID. Rwanda allows citizens from EAC countries to stay for up to six months without a visa and admits those from all 55 African Union member states for 30 days visa-free.
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Policymakers across Africa have long acknowledged that restrictions on movement across borders have been limiting growth in trade, investment and tourism. The African Union adopted a free movement of people protocol in 2018 but although more than 30 countries have signed, only four have ratified it.
Reluctance to open borders is mostly due to similar concerns as those voiced elsewhere in the world, mainly security and fear of economic migration. In a continent with many armed conflicts and where the income per capita in the richest country is more than 50 times that of the poorest, such fears are not baseless.
Some African governments don’t want to lose the income generated by visa application fees, which can be high. But Rwanda’s experience suggests such losses are more than outweighed by increased revenue from tourism.
Even if other African countries follow Ghana in offering free visas, their citizens still face a major barrier in the steep cost of air fares within the continent, which are some of the most expensive in the world. High airport charges are one factor but the biggest is a lack of competition between airlines and a shortage of direct routes between African capitals.
This means it is usually cheaper and more convenient to take a connecting flight through the Middle East or Europe than to fly directly between African capitals. For the same reason, a South African traveller will also find it less expensive to fly to Thailand than to take a holiday in Kenya.
Another problem for African airlines is the high cost of jet fuel in the continent, where limited refining capacity, inefficient supply chains and inflation make it 40 per cent more expensive than the global average. The war in Iran has just made that worse.
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