Emmanuel Ojukwu
The value of the Nigerian passport has continued to remain at the bottom level, after it was ranked amongst the tenth worst travel documents globally, ranking 191 out of 199 countries, according to VisaGuide’s World Passport Index.
The ranking revealed that as of April, the Nigerian passport is accompanied by countries like North Korea (192), Iraq (193), Libya (194), Sudan (195), Pakistan (196), Afghanistan (197), Syria (198) and Somalia (199).
The report said,
“To reach a unique ranking, we assign a value, which we call Destination Significance Score (DSS), to each travel destination. It added, “A unique DSS value is assigned to each destination based on the entry policy it enforces on the passport, GDP, Power Index, Tourism Index and Human Development Index (HDI), among other factors. The DSS is multiplied with the value of the visa requirement of the destination country toward the selected passport holders.”
Other factors are visa-free travel, electronic travel authorization, visa on arrival, electronic visa (e-visa), embassy or other government-approved visas, passport-free travel, and banned entry. It also noted that since destination countries are each assigned a unique DSS, “being able to travel visa-free to a destination with a higher DSS gives the selected passport a higher value than having visa-free access to a country with lower (sic) DSS.”
Recall that in January, the Henley Passport Index listed the Nigerian passport among the worst 10 performing travel documents worldwide. Using travel data collected from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the ultimate factor considered when evaluating passports is the number of countries the holder can enter without requiring a visa.
The Nigerian green passport was ranked among the world’s bottom 10, alongside insecurity-battered Libya, Somalia, Syria and Afghanistan ranking last, according to the 2024 report of the Henley Passport Index. Nigeria, together with Iran, Lebanon and Sudan, ranked 95th. Bearers of these passports can only access 45 countries.
admin
