The Nigerian passport has ranked 101st out of the total 199 countries in the world, one report released by the Henley Passport Index has said.
The Henley Passport Index, a London, United Kingdom-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm said it ranked the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a visa.
In its latest report, Nigeria, often touted as the gaint of Africa occupies the 101st position, beating only seven countries on the continent.
The New Diplomat reports Nigeria, a country of over 200 million people and Africa’s largest economy was also behind all of its immediate neighbours on the passport index log, including Chad, Benin Republic, Niger Republic and Cameroon.
Japan’s passport topped the list, followed by Singapore who came second, while South Korea and Germany are both tied for third. Italy, Finland, Spain and Luxembourg take the fourth position, while Denmark and Austria round out the top five.
The company, on July 6, stated, “With the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics just weeks away, and the country in a ‘quasi’ state of emergency, Japan nonetheless retains its hold on the number one spot on the HPI — which is based on exclusive data from the IATA — with a theoretical visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 193.
“While the dominance of European passports in the top 10 has been a given for most of the index’s 16-year history, the pre-eminence of three Asian states — Japan, Singapore, and South Korea — has become the new normal.
“Singapore remains in second place, with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 192, and South Korea continues to share joint-third place with Germany, each with a score of 191.”
Also, Seychelles (28th) ranked first amongst African countries, followed by Mauritius (31st), South Africa (57th), Botswana (66th), Namibia (72nd), Lesotho (73rd), Eswatini (75th), Malawi (76th), Kenya and Tanzania (77th), Zambia and Tunisia (78th), The Gambia (80th), Uganda and Cape Verde Islands (81st).
Other African countries include; Zimbabwe (83rd), Ghana and Morocco (84th), Sierra Leone and Mozambique (85th), Benin (86th), São Tomé and Príncipe and Rwanda (87th), Mauritania (88th), Burkina Faso (89th), Gabon (90th), and Cote d’Ivoire (91st).
Nigeria beat only seven countries on the continent, namely Ethiopia (102nd), South Sudan (103rd), Eritrea and Democratic Republic of the Congo (104th), Sudan (106th), Libya (107th), and Somalia (111th).
