British global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners has just published the 2020 ranking of the world’s most powerful passports. Although Africa is still lagging compared to the rest of the world, some countries on the continent are making progress.

Seychelles’ passport ranked 29th worldwide and 1^st in Africa, gives visa-free entry to 151 destinations. The top 5 on the continent also includes Mauritius (32^nd worldwide, 146 destinations), South Africa (56th, 100 destinations), Botswana (62nd, 84 destinations) and Namibia (67th, 76 destinations).

Africa’s worst performers are the Democratic Republic of Congo (98^th in the world), Eritrea (98th), Sudan (100th), Libya (102nd) and Somalia (104th).

Commenting on this ranking, political scientists Utur Altundal and Ömer Zarpli, from Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh respectively, found that there is a strong correlation between the freedom to travel and other types of freedoms including economic, political and even individual.

Globally, the Japanese passport, for the third year in a row, is the world's most powerful passport giving visa-free access to 191 countries. It is followed by the passports of Singapore and Germany. The South Korean passport which was 2^nd in the previous ranking now ranks 4th.

Romuald Ngueyap