Kenyan President William Ruto has announced the imminent removal of the visa requirement for all African visitors by the end of this year. If this goes ahead, Kenya will become the fifth African country to open its doors to ease free movement with countries of the continent.

Speaking at an international conference, President Ruto stressed the need to eliminate visa restrictions between African countries, saying that such restrictions are counterproductive.

The president stressed the importance of not confining African youth within the borders of their own continent or of Europe. He made the announcement at a summit focused on conserving the world’s largest rainforests.

Recall that since 2022, only Seychelles, The Gambia, Benin and Rwanda allow all African citizens to enter without a visa.

The last of these, Rwanda, has only just joined this list this week with a decision that could shift the economic and social dynamics of the continent.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame declared the end of the restriction on 2 November, at the podium of the 23rd World Travel & Tourism Council summit in Kigali.

“Any African can fly to Rwanda whenever they wish and they will not pay to enter our country”

Paul Kagame

The tourism sector is still trying to get back up to speed and recover from the consequences of the health crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In Africa, according to figures from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, 60% of tourists come from another continent. 

A measure that could boost the free movement of people and trade, even though the impact in terms of the volume of potential travellers remains to be determined.

The continent’s tourism sector in 2023 is therefore benefiting from the post-Covid-19 recovery, with revenue estimated at nearly 182 billion dollars by the end of the year, a 5% increase compared with 2019. The news is therefore positive.

According to a new report on the state and outlook of the tourism sector in Africa presented by the World Travel and Tourism Council, this 5% annual growth should be sustained over the next decade, reaching in 2033 more than 300 billion dollars in revenue and nearly 36 million jobs on the continent.