Africa launched an ambitious project of a free-trade area in 2021, with all African Union member countries signing on. At the core of this free-trade area is the movement of goods and people. But the continent is still grappling with visa regimes that many analysts say is holding back Africa's economic prosperity.
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00:00 By the end of this year, no African will be required
00:04 to have a visa to come to Kenya.
00:06 - Only 18% of African trade is carried out
00:09 within the continent.
00:11 The rest is external.
00:13 To kickstart intra-Africa trade,
00:15 the African Union launched a free trade pact
00:18 after decades of delays.
00:20 But travel restrictions across Africa are hampering progress.
00:23 Welcome to the flip side.
00:26 Just recently, Ghana and South Africa,
00:28 Uganda and DR Congo, Kenya and DR Congo
00:32 have all announced the scrapping of visa requirements
00:35 for their citizens as a response.
00:37 Back in 2021, the African Union operationalized
00:41 the Continental Free Trade Area,
00:43 an ambitious pact to create
00:45 the world's largest free trade zone.
00:48 It aims to connect over 1 billion people across 55 countries
00:52 with a combined GDP of more than 3 trillion
00:55 and lifts more than 30 million people
00:57 out of extreme poverty.
00:59 As exciting as the benefits may sound,
01:02 the key is trade facilitation,
01:04 but the movement of goods and people
01:07 isn't always easy in Africa.
01:09 - For an African to visit a fellow African
01:14 within the African Union,
01:16 the visa restrictions in many of our nations
01:20 among us, between our brothers and sisters,
01:22 is like trying to brush the teeth of a crocodile.
01:25 - The African Development Bank's report
01:27 showed that Benin, the Gambia and the Seychelles
01:30 are the most welcoming countries,
01:32 offering visa-free entry to all African citizens.
01:36 Meanwhile, Libya, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan
01:39 have some of the most restrictive visa policies
01:42 for African visitors.
01:43 It is a trend that doesn't excite many analysts.
01:47 - Goods don't move by themselves.
01:49 Goods are moved by people.
01:51 So why do we want to say that goods can move freely
01:56 but people cannot?
01:57 - But why are many African countries
02:00 so slow to eliminate travel restrictions
02:02 and visa requirements?
02:04 - One of the things that they usually mention
02:07 is what about security?
02:08 If you open the borders,
02:09 will people come in and terrorism, things like that.
02:14 - However, some African countries like Kenya
02:16 are warming up to the push for a visa-free continent.
02:20 - We are now moving in the direction
02:22 of eliminating visas among ourselves.
02:25 Let me say this, as Kenya, by the end of this year,
02:29 no African will be required to have a visa to come to Kenya.
02:34 - The continent's biggest economic transformative project
02:37 in decades is the continental free trade area.
02:40 It must succeed for economic growth,
02:43 but the absence of total free movement of goods and people
02:47 just throws it out of track.
02:49 The clock is ticking and that's the flip side.
02:52 (dramatic music)