10 least powerful African passports in 2024

While some African countries offer relatively robust travel options to their citizens, others face stringent restrictions. Passports from these latter nations often grant limited visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to other countries, creating huge barriers to international travel.

These restrictions not only impact personal travel but also have broader implications for business, education, and diplomatic relations.

The VisaGuide.World Passport Index, a system that assesses and ranks passports from 199 countries and territories based on a range of factors to gauge their strength, has unveiled the 2024 rankings, revealing how each country's passport is positioned.

According toVisaGuide.World's Passport Index, what sets it apart is that no two passports are ranked the same. It differentiates between diverse visa regulations, including visa-free entry, e-visas, visas on arrival, authorization entry, and visa bans, providing a more precise assessment of international travel convenience.

To achieve this distinct ranking, VisaGuide.World's Passport Index employ a proprietary Destination Significance Score (DSS) – a combination of many factors which gives each passport unique value.

This score is assigned to each travel destination, considering elements such as entry policies, GDP, Power Index, Tourism Index, and Human Development Index (HDI), among others.

This index is updated monthly to reflect changing global travel dynamics. In Africa, Somalia holds the title for the weakest passport strength, scoring 8.15. Following closely behind are Sudan, with a score of 10.70, and Libya, with a score of 11.08.