Nigeria’s passport ranking falls to 181, visa-free access shrinks
Nigeria’s passport has dropped to 181st in the latest IziVisa Passport Ranking Index, with visa-free access shrinking from 44 to 24 destinations. Read More:…
Passport rankings such as the one compiled by IziVisa measure the relative strength of a country's travel document by tallying how many destinations its holders can enter without a prior visa, through visa-on-arrival arrangements, or via electronic travel authorisations. These indexes are closely watched because they reflect a country's diplomatic standing, reciprocal travel agreements, and perceptions of security and migration risk among other governments — factors that can shift from year to year as states renegotiate visa waivers or tighten entry rules.
For Nigeria, passport strength has long been a sore point, with the document consistently ranking among the weaker ones globally and travellers frequently citing the cost, delays and bureaucratic hurdles involved in visa applications to Western and some African countries. The latest figures cited by Punch and Legit.ng point to a further slide to 181st position, with visa-free access roughly halving from 44 to 24 destinations; Legit.ng adds that 16 of those 24 are accessible via visa-on-arrival rather than outright visa-free entry. Neither report details the specific countries removed from the list or the reasons cited by IziVisa for the downgrade, leaving open questions about which bilateral relationships or security assessments drove the change.