In recent time, the African Union leadership has been make efforts at encouraging seamless travels within Africa for the 1.2 billion Africans.
Unlike before, the continent’s umbrella organization, is marching its bids for free movement of people across the continent with action that has resulted in the launch of the symbolic AU Passport recently at its annual General Assembly in Kigali.
But while the African-wide initiative is commendable, The TeamAfrica (TTA), a pan-African travel association, prefers visa-on-arrival for all Africans to the symbolic AU Passport.
The Pan African Travel Association TheTeamAfrica has commended the efforts of the AU leadership to bring about seamless travels within Africa for Africans. The AU leaders launched a new African Passport at its annual General Assembly in Kigali for Diplomats as although AU envisaged to bring to the fore the issue of free and easy movement within the continent with the symbolic passport, the team comprising travel professionals from across the continent agreed after an extensive discussion of the passport issue that the launch of the AU document is noteworthy but symbolic as it has no real value as at now. To buttress their recommendation of visa-on-arrival, TeamAfrica pointed out the difficulty of implementing the Yamoussoukro Decision to open African skies for Aviation which has not been implemented since 1999, and noted that the just-launched passport initiative may go the same way.
Citing Dlamina Zulu, African Union chairperson, who disclosed that the delay in implementing an AU decision since 2003 has cost Africa 40 percent market share in aviation on the continent, TeamAfrica feared that the implementation of the African Passport may face similar difficulties, and make the seamless travel campaign even more counter productive.
In view of these, the pan-African association argues that immediate implementation of visa-on-arrival for all Africans is easier to implement and adopt. The recommend that African Union should rather encourage members countries to emulate the seamless travel initiatives so far implemented by some countries such as Ghana that recently joined Rwanda and Seychelles in implementing Visa-On-Arrival for all Africans, which has also taken off successfully. Hence, the team recommends visa-on-arrival as a faster way of integrating Africa while discussions on the modality of how implementation of the AU Passport is being worked out between nations to sort out grey areas.
It would be recalled that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region was the first to launch free movement protocol among her 15 countries with little impact despite the region’s 300 million population. Recently, regional blocs in the East and South of Africa have all implemented free movement protocol for regional citizens with no negative fallout. Some regions have even implemented joint visa such as the EAC Tourism Visa for three countries in East Africa.
However, TeamAfrica suggests that the next linkage should be free movement protocol between the regions on the continent. “ECOWAS and the EAC group can sign an MOU and bring this about long before the targeted date of 2018 for AU Passport launch for citizens”, TeamAfrica suggested.
The Team also highlighted visa fees as another issue of interest in Africa seamless travel campaign. The Team observed that though Uganda dropped her visa fees from $100 to $50, which is commendable, yet some African countries still pay close to $200 for visas within Africa. Following the ugly development, TeamAfrica believes that the AU should assist member countries to establish a uniform fee for visas for African travelers.
The TeamAfrica is an association for players in Travel and Tourism business in African. Its major role is to encourage Travel within Africa for Africans as most Africans do not travel much within African. The pan-African association aims to grow travel within Africa by jointly promoting events within Africa and pressure governments to adopt policies that encourage intra African Travels. It was formed in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda in 2015 and has since then, grown to include practitioners from over 15 countries across Africa.
Its landmark project is the expected launch of the search for the 21 Wonders of Africa.
