Namibia’s Global Passport Power Rankings on the Henley Passport Index has fallen to 116th in the mid-2024 update, despite holding steady with access to 80 visa-free destinations out of 227 possible.
The slip is despite an increase to the country’s economic mobility score from 8.33% in Q1 to 8.99% currently.
Further, while some countries on the continent have seen significant improvements, Namibia’s passport strength ranking in comparison to other African countries has experienced a slight decline as well.
Namibia, previously tied with Lesotho for sixth place in the Q1 2024 report, now finds itself in eighth place in Africa.
Notably, Lesotho, despite being tied with Namibia in visa-free access, holds a slightly higher global ranking due to a potential difference in economic mobility scores with Lesotho scoring 11.61%.
At the forefront of the African country rankings are Mauritius and Seychelles, holding the top two spots for visa-free access on the continent.
Mauritius boasts access to 151 destinations, placing it 39th globally, while Seychelles enjoys access to 156 destinations, and ranking 40th worldwide.
South Africa also witnessed a rise, climbing to 97th globally with visa-free access to 108 destinations.
Beyond the top three, Botswana (105th), Tunisia (107th), Lesotho (110th – tied with Namibia), Morocco (113th), eSwatini (123rd), and Cape Verde (126th) round out the top ten African passports.
Also, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi which were ranked 8th, 9th and 10th are off the top 10 in Africa list, replaced by Cape Verde Islands, Morocco and Tunisia.
Meanwhile, Nigeria and Somalia have the lowest rankings on the continent ranking 176th globally and able to travel to 45 countries and 176th and 36 countries each. Nigeria replaces Somalia as the lowest ranked in Q1.
France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, as part of the European Union, remain as the best passports to have, allowing for 194 destinations while Japan and Singapore fell to 12th and 4th place from the top spot respectively.
The Henley Passport Index is the original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.
The ranking is based on data provided by the International Air Transport Association, which maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information and is enhanced by the Henley and Partners research department.
