According to the Henley Passport Index for the first quarter of 2023, the Nigerian passport grants visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to only 46 other countries.
The index ranks 199 passports, and 227 different travel destinations, across the world, on a quarterly basis, according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.
Nigeria’s passport strength pales in comparison to other African countries like Djibouti whose citizens have visa-free, visa-on-arrival or e-visa access to 48 other countries, and The Republic of the Congo (49), Burundi (49), Liberia (49), and Angola (50).
Cameroon (51), Guinea-Bissau (52), Comoro Islands (52), Chad (52), Central African Republic (52), Algeria (52), Niger Republic (53), Mali (53), Egypt (53), Togo (54), and Madagascar (54) also have stronger passports than Nigeria.
Others include Guinea (55), Equatorial Guinea (55), Senegal (56), Gabon ((56), Cote d’Ivoire (56), Burkina Faso (57), Mauritania (58), São Tomé and Príncipe (59), Rwanda (60), Benin (60), Mozambique (61), Sierra Leone (64) and Ghana (64).
Nigerian passport only better than six other African countries
Further ahead of Nigeria are Zimbabwe (65), Morocco (65), Cape Verde (65), Uganda (66), Gambia (68), Zambia (70), Tunisia (71), Tanzania (71), Kenya (72), Malawi (73), Eswatini (74), Lesotho (77), Namibia (78), and Botswana (86).
Seychelles has the strongest passport in Africa with visa-free, visa-on-arrival or e-visa access to 153 countries around the world, followed by Mauritius (146) and South Africa (106).
The only African countries with weaker passports than the Nigerian passport are Eritrea (44), South Sudan (44), the Democratic Republic of Congo (42), Sudan (42), Libya (40), and Somalia (35).
Asian countries lead the ranking of strongest passports
Generally, Japan (193), Singapore (193), South Korea (192), Germany (191) and Spain (191) have the strongest passports in the world.
On the wrong end of the ranking table, Yemen (34), Pakistan (32), Syria (30), Iraq (29) and Afghanistan (27) have the weakest.
The Henley Passport Index is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).