The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, has stated that the country will grant visa-free travel to Africans to boost free movement of people and trade.
With this decision Rwanda joins the Schengen Zone, made up of 27 European countries that have introduced visa-free policies for EU countries.
Rwanda also becomes the latest and one of the African nations to introduce the policy to drive a more integrated continent to compete with the EU countries.
Recalled that the Schengen has eliminated the need for passports and various border control measures at their shared borders.
Rwanda’s plan, it was learnt, was disclosed by the President during a speech in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
“Any African can get on a plane to Rwanda whenever they wish and they will not pay a thing to enter our country,” Kagame was quoted as saying at the 23rd Global Summit of the World Travel and Tourism Council.
“We should not lose sight of our own continental market. Africans are the future of global tourism as our middle class continues to grow at a fast pace in the decades to come,” he added.
The introduction of the Visa-free policy by Rwanda brings to four the number of African countries that have introduced travel restriction programmes.
Others are the Benin Republic, Gambia and Seychelles.
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