Namibia has not abolished visa requirements for all countries in Africa

“Namibia has become the first African country to remove visas for all African nationals traveling into Namibia from all 54 African countries. A borderless Africa is possible !!! (sic),” reads a tweet published on June 1, 2023, and shared more than 4,000 times.

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Screenshot showing the false post, taken on June 19, 2023

Similar claims were shared on Facebook here, here and here.

The African Union’s Agenda 2063 calls for the abolition of all visa requirements for African travellers to other African countries so as to create an “an integrated continent, politically united and based on the ideals of Pan-Africanism and the vision of Africa’s Renaissance” (archived here).

Some African countries have existing bilateral agreements that eliminate the need for visa applications or visas on arrival for their citizens (archived here).

In 2016, The Namibian newspaper reported that President Hage Gottfried Geingob planned to abolish visa requirements for all African passport holders (archived here).

Seven years later, however, this remains a work in progress.

False information

A search of the website of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security revealed that Namibia has not scrapped visa requirements for all African passport holders (archived here). Globally, 89 countries have visa exemption agreements with Namibia, 42 of them from Africa.

A government spokeswoman confirmed the status quo to AFP Fact Check.

“There has been no decision to drop visa requirements for African countries as the social media posts say,” said Margaret Kalo.

Authorities published an official statement on Twitter on June 5, 2023, denying the claim (archived here).

South Africa introduced (archived here) visa-waiver travel options for eligible nationals of Kenya in November 2022. Early this month, Kenya said it will drop (archived here) the visa requirement for citizens of Djibouti visiting the country.

South Africa, the most industrialised nation in the continent, has visa waivers (archived here) for more than 30 African countries for a specified period of up to 90 days.