On the sidelines of the 38th African Union Summit, African leaders discussed obstacles to the continent’s economic integration, underscoring visa-free movement to reduce illegal migration and strengthen official travel channels. The high-level dialogue, convened by the African Development Bank Group and the African Union Commission alongside the AU Summit, brought together trade ministers and business leaders who pointed to Rwanda’s experience as evidence that open borders enhance, rather than compromise, security.

African Development Bank Group vice president for regional development, integration and business delivery Nnenna Nwabufo expressed the bank’s continued commitment to supporting the acceleration of visa-free movement across the continent. 

“We do it for its promise to transform Africa, and to create prosperity,” she noted. “In fact, the goals of our new Ten-Year Strategy (2024–2033) are designed around seizing Africa’s opportunities for a prosperous, inclusive, resilient and integrated continent.”

In his keynote address, Albert Muchanga, commissioner for economic development, trade, tourism, industry and minerals at the African Union Commission, outlined four priority areas to open up the continent. 

They include liberalising the movement of categories of people critical for trade in goods and services, implementing the Strategic Framework on Key Actions to Achieve Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development in Africa, advancing to the next stage of African economic integration, particularly the African Common market, as envisaged under the 1991 Abuja Treaty, and establishing the appropriate facilitation measures, whether soft or hard infrastructure, to facilitate free movement of persons.

Commissioner Muchanga stressed the need to make more progress on some continental projects, such as the trans-African highways (Cairo to Cape and Dakar to Mombasa), to facilitate free movement of persons.

Presenting the “State of play in visa-free movement in Africa”, which featured findings from the latest edition of the AfricaVisa Openness Index, AVOI, Principal Regional Integration Coordinator at the African Development Bank’s Regional Integration Coordination Office Ometere Omoluabi-Davies highlighted the progress made by some countries regarding opening up their borders for Africans.

The presentation reported that 39 African countries have improved their scores since 2016, indicating that visa openness across Africa is at its highest level since the inception of the index. Despite this inspiring trajectory, it was observed that there is still much room for progress to facilitate the unrestricted mobility of Africans within the continent.

Rwanda Minister of Trade and Industry Prudence Sebahizi shared his country’s experience and economic gains from implementing a visa-free regime. 

“Rwanda does not agree with the usual excuse of security threats that accompany visa-free discussions because what is important is to invest in the systems, security, governance, monitoring,” he declared.

“In the end, people who travel for tourism and business will always use the official channels such as the borders and airports. This means the policy itself cannot contribute to security concerns, but rather solve the issue of smuggling and illegal migration.”

The event featured roundtable discussions in which Africa’s policymakers and business leaders shared insights on implementing visa-free movement across the continent. With a resounding call to action, African Union’s youth envoy Chido Mpemba emphasised that the interconnectedness of young people through social media and the internet enables experience-sharing and cross-border collaboration. She noted that this was critical for building the social and cultural integration needed to create a shared African identity.

The session concluded with a joint announcement of the 2025 Visa-Free Roadshow by Joy Kategekwa, director of the regional integration coordination office of the African Development Bank Group, and Sabelo Mbokazi, head of employment, labour and migration division of the African Union Commission.

This roadshow aims to sustain advocacy and mobilise action for visa openness and free movement within Africa’s broader regional integration agenda to deliver better results for all Africans.