Passengers exit Jomo Kenyatta International Airport's international arrivals terminal.
In a rare policy shift that promises real economic upside, Kenya has announced visa-free entry for all African nationals, except Libya and Somalia, and most Caribbean countries. Visitors from the continent will be allowed to stay for up to 60 days. Kenya joins Rwanda, The Gambia, Benin, and Seychelles that have embraced the idea of a borderless Africa. It’s a quiet revolution with powerful implications for trade, tourism, and our collective future.
The last time Kenya lifted visa restrictions with a fellow African country, it triggered a 30 per cent surge in travel. That was with South Africa, in 2023, and it happened within just three months. When bureaucratic barriers are removed, people move. And when they do, they trade, invest, connect. People-to-people connection creates a multiplier effect that no summit or donor programme can replicate.
Currently, only about 14 per cent of Africa’s trade happens within the continent compared to 55 per cent in Asia, 49 per cent in North America, and a massive 63 per cent within the EU. The African Continental Free Trade Area, launched in 2021, set a target to raise intra-African trade to 52 per cent. But unless we make it easier for Africans to move across borders with ease, we’ll keep falling short.
Fuel migration waves
Last year, I wrote about the irony of Africa’s closed skies. Air travel within Africa is too expensive, due to overregulation, closed airspace deals, and bilateral protectionism. Flying from Nairobi to Accra costs more than a round trip to Europe. The same logic that kept our skies fragmented is what kept the borders closed. These are plans based on outdated ideas of sovereignty and control, not shared progress.
A 45-minute flight from Nairobi to Entebbe, between two neighbours sharing language, culture, and history, can cost more than a round trip from Nairobi to Dubai, a five-hour flight across continents. That’s not about distance, it’s about politics and the invisible walls we’ve built.
But the reality is more complex. Open borders can fuel migration waves that strain host countries. In South Africa, large numbers of Nigerians and Zimbabweans, many seeking informal-sector work, have sparked xenophobic backlash, crime fears, and political tension. Violent riots in 2008, 2015, and sporadically since then have been blamed on foreign nationals blamed for “stealing” jobs. Vigilante groups such as Operation Dudula, which demand the expulsion of migrants, have gained traction. Others say porous borders without adequate safeguards, such as labour registration and policing, can lead to increased crime, xenophobia, and public unrest.
Template for Africa
Despite these pitfalls, we can learn from the EU. The Schengen Area allows Europeans to move freely to live, work, study, and do business across borders. Most citizens support this freedom, and 84 per cent say borderless travel is one of EU’s greatest achievements. Wealthier EU nations have stepped in to support economically weaker members through investment, cohesion funds, and shared social services, all underpinned by the same open border framework.
That model offers a template for Africa. Countries with natural resources, stronger economies, or developed educational and health systems could, under a pan-African open border regime, uplift others through skilled labour deployment, remittances, educational exchange, and regional development funds. Kenyan or South African-trained doctors could work in underserved regions across the region. Engineers from Ghana or Egypt could support infrastructure projects in less-developed countries. Educational scholarships and cross-border university programs could enhance skills continent wide.
In my view, open borders, properly managed, offer Africa the greatest development tool of all. They enable Africans to solve their own problems by moving, trading, investing, and sharing knowledge. They empower markets, not middlemen. When we make mobility work with governance, regulation, and solidarity, we don’t just lift barriers, we lift potential.
The writer is a whistleblower, Strategy consultant, and a Startup Mentor. www.nelsonamenya.com
