Joy Kategekwa, Director at the African Development Bank (AfDB), says Africa’s push for visa-free movement is increasingly backed by strong economic evidence, even as policy gaps persist.

Speaking at the APN Africa Day webinar on Monday (25 May), Kategekwa said Africa’s visa openness landscape has improved but remains far from its potential, noting that intra-African travel is still heavily constrained.

She cited AfDB–AU data showing that visa-free travel within Africa has increased from about 20% in earlier years to 28.2% currently, while more than half of African travellers still require visas.

“Something is shifting, but we need to move faster,” she said.

Kategekwa pointed to countries such as Rwanda, Kenya, Benin, and The Gambia as examples where more open visa regimes have generated measurable economic gains, particularly in tourism and services.

She noted that Kenya alone generated about $3.8 billion from tourism in 2025, with a majority of visitors coming from other African countries, while Rwanda earned approximately $680 million from tourism under its liberal visa regime.

The Gambia, she added, recorded about 230,000 visitors under its visa-free policy.

According to her, these figures demonstrate that intra-African mobility directly supports tourism, aviation, and broader service-sector growth.

However, she cautioned that regional disparities in security concerns, migration policies, and trust deficits between countries continue to slow implementation of continent-wide free movement.

Kategekwa also highlighted AfDB instruments such as policy-based operations and regional public goods financing as tools that can incentivise governments to adopt freer movement policies.

She concluded that Africa must combine infrastructure investment, policy harmonisation, and pilot integration models to build momentum toward a fully integrated continental market.