Over the past decade, the Nigerian passport has suffered the worst decline in rankings on the annual Henley Passport Index with a 19-place drop. The decline in passport power now sees Africa’s most populous country rank 95th—firmly etched in the bottom quarter of the rankings. The drop in rankings also means Nigerian passport holders can visit two countries fewer now than they could in 2010 without first obtaining a visa.
While Henley & Partners, the residence and citizenship consultancy that collates the index, notes a “substantial increase in the number of countries an average individual can visit without needing to get a visa in advance,” it also admits much of the progress on this front is firmly skewed towards holders of passports of developing countries. As such, the firm says the current global mobility gap is the “starkest” ever since the inception of the index.
