Nigerian passport drops 38 places on index ranking

The Nigerian passport has plummeted 38 places on a global passport ranking in the last 17 years.

This was based on the Henley Passport Index, issued on Tuesday, which revealed that this devaluation of the Nigerian passport was due to the various economic challenges plaguing the country.

The HPI is the original ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

As indicated by exclusive new research conducted by leading residence and citizenship advisory firm Henley & Partners into the link between passport strength and access to the global economy, citizens of the index’s lowest-ranking countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq (visa-free score of 29), and Syria (visa-free score of 30) are effectively shut out of a shockingly wide breadth of opportunities for economic mobility and growth.

By combining Henley Passport Index data and World Bank GDP data, the new research ranks all 199 passports in the world in terms of their Henley Passport Power (HPP) score, a term that indicates the percentage of global GDP each passport provides to its holders’ visa-free.

The Japanese passport, for instance, gives visa-free access to 193 destinations (85% of the world).

Collectively, these countries account for a whopping 98% of the global economy (with Japan’s own GDP contribution being around 5%).

Read also:Senate commences probe to end hoarding of Nigerian passports abroad

In contrast this figure with a passport from the lower end of the spectrum, Nigerian passport holders can access only 46 destinations visa-free (20% of the world), with these countries accounting for just 1.5% of global GDP.

At the bottom of the ranking, the Afghanistan passport provides visa-free access to just 12% of the world and less than 1% of global economic output.

Countries currently offering visa-free, visa-on-arrival and e-visa access to Nigerians include: Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Cabo Verde, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique , Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Others include: Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Timor-Leste, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Fiji, Micronesia, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Chairman of Henley & Partners, Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, who invented the passport index concept nearly 20 years ago, says that this latest, eye-opening study enhances our understanding of what passport power means in concrete financial terms.

“The Henley Passport Index measures visa-free access to 227 destinations across the world, which of course makes it an extremely useful tool for travelers.

“However, for global citizens and international businesspeople, a better measure of economic mobility and opportunity afforded by their passports is an indication of what share of the world’s GDP is accessible to them visa-free.

“Our latest research into how much global economic access each passport provides is a useful tool for investors, in addition to giving new insight into the ever-widening economic inequality and wealth disparity that has come to define our world”, he said.

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