The Nigerian Passport has been ranked 191st out of 199 countries, positioning it as one of t the top 10th least favorable travel documents globally, according to VisaGuide’s World Passport Index released this April.
In the latest rankings, the Nigerian passport ranks in the same category as countries such as such as North Korea, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Somalia.
According to the index, the Singaporean passport leads the rankings as the strongest globally, followed by the Italian passport. Spanish, French, and German passports are also among the top five in the rankings.
Each destination country is assigned a unique Destination Significance Score (DSS), which influences the passport’s value. Factors such as visa-free travel, electronic travel authorization, visa on arrival, embassy-approved visas, and passport-free travel are considered in the ranking process.
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“Because destination countries are each assigned a unique DSS, it means that being able to travel visa-free to a destination with a higher DSS gives the selected passport a higher value than having visa-free access to a country with lowed DSS. This results in a more accurate ranking for each passport. Once all factors are calculated, each passport has its own unique value, with no two countries having the same number of “visa-free” destinations,” the index said.
The new rankings perhaps do not come as a surprise as the Nigerian passport previously took the bottom spot among 20 countries with the worst passports to hold in 2023 on the Henley Passport Index.
The country’s poor rankings according to local publication, the Business Day is attributed to visa bans and other restrictions against Nigerian travellers. Nigerians can travel visa-free to only 45 destinations in the world.
