{"id":1505,"date":"2016-03-16T12:29:30","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T11:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=1505"},"modified":"2016-10-26T16:25:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T15:25:42","slug":"boosting-business-in-africa-needs-more-visa-openness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2016\/03\/16\/boosting-business-in-africa-needs-more-visa-openness\/","title":{"rendered":"Boosting Business in Africa Needs More Visa Openness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Applying for a visa is one of the hassles that makes travel into a country inconvenient<\/strong>. As a Spaniard travelling to Africa, <strong>I\u2019ve had diverse experience depending on the country I visit<\/strong>. I don\u2019t need any visa to enter South Africa, and I can get a visa on arrival to enter Kenya. The experience with Nigeria is that even if I start the application process two months in advance, chances are that I will get the visa just a couple of days before departure or so. And to get the visa, I need to have a ticket plane, so I need to buy it not knowing whether I\u2019ll be able to use it or not. Quite a hassle, indeed! My Nigerian friends tell me that this is because Spain gives them a really hard time with visas, and they believe that the Nigerian embassy just reciprocates\u2026 Oh, well\u2026<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1506\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1506\" style=\"width: 744px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1506\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2016\/03\/Visa-opennes-in-Africa.jpg\" alt=\"Visa openness helps boost business\" width=\"744\" height=\"410\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1506\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visa openness helps boost business<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Travelling within Africa is also a hassle for Africans<\/strong>. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.afdb.org\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\">Africa Development Bank<\/a> has published the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.afdb.org\/fileadmin\/uploads\/afdb\/Documents\/Generic-Documents\/Africa_Visa_Openness_Report_2016.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Africa Visa Openness Report<\/a><\/strong> for the first time. It ranks countries on how open visa regimes are. This comes down to how easy it is for other Africans to visit that country. Some of the findings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Seychelles is the only country with no visa requirements for other Africans;<\/li>\n<li>3 countries offer visa on arrival to all African travelers: Comoros, Madagascar, and Somalia;<\/li>\n<li>9 countries have a combination of no visa and visa on arrival: Mali, Uganda, Cape Verde, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Burundi;<\/li>\n<li>4 countries require visa to all other Africans: Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe, and Western Sahara.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<a class=\"inline-twitter-link inline-tweet-click\" href=\"#\" onclick=\"inline_tweet_sharer_open_win('https:\\\/\\\/twitter.com\\\/intent\\\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.iese.edu%2Fafrica%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F1505%2F&text=Visa+openness+is+an+important+facilitator+of+business+and+trade.+It+helps+attracting+investment+and+talent+');\" title=\"Tweet This!\">Visa openness is an important facilitator of business and trade. It helps attracting investment and talent <span class=\"non-dashicons\"> <\/span><\/a>. Clearly, it\u2019s a critical step towards the integration of Africa.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.au.int\/\" target=\"_blank\">Africa Union<\/a> committed to <strong>the <a href=\"http:\/\/agenda2063.au.int\/en\/sites\/default\/files\/agenda2063_popular_version_05092014_EN.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Agenda 2063<\/a> aimed at ensuring positive socioeconomic transformation within the next 50 years<\/strong>. The Agenda aspirations include an integrated continent, and a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development.<\/p>\n<p>This is a tribute to Africans\u2019 long-term mentality, which co-exists with extreme short-termism in an interesting way. The Africa Development Bank is aware of the need to bridge the short-term \u2013 log-term gap. <strong>That\u2019s why they\u2019ve published the Index: to make policymakers aware of the need to make visa reforms<\/strong>. Congratulations on starting to put the thread in the needle!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Related posts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/09\/02\/regional-integration-in-africa\/\">Regional integration in Africa<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/11\/05\/locating-a-business-in-africa-how-much-of-a-hassle\/\">Locating a business in Africa: How much of a hassle?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Applying for a visa is one of the hassles that makes travel into a country inconvenient. As a Spaniard travelling to Africa, I\u2019ve had diverse experience depending on the country I visit. I don\u2019t need any visa to enter South Africa, and I can get a visa on arrival to enter Kenya. The experience with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99579,100235],"tags":[273,100298,18386,7999,1376,100294],"class_list":["post-1505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-african-economic-and-institutional-context","category-differences-within-africa","tag-africa-development-bank","tag-africa-union","tag-business-travel","tag-investments","tag-trade","tag-visa-openess","megacategoria-mc-africa"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1505"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1509,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505\/revisions\/1509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}