It is so sad to be an African and still struggle to travel freely withing the continent. No wonder many African prefer to travel to other continents. Not because there are no beautiful places to explore in Africa but because it’s STRESSFUL and EXPENSIVE to travel Africa.

For a long time, travelers have been and are still laying the same complaint as to why they don’t like traveling the African continent. There was a discussion raised on social media, sometimes last year, on how expensive it is to travel in Africa.

Not only is traveling within the continent expensive, most African countries are not accessible. Despite the fact that these countries share the same continent, it’s quite difficult to go freely to another African country.

Luckily for Africans, after 3 years, the African Union Commission plans to launch the African Union Passport in February. With the AU passport, traveling within African continent will become a lot easier.

Earlier this year the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, shared the good news.

“I am pleased to stress that, in February 2019, in Addis Ababa, at the 32nd Summit of our Union, the Commission will present, for adoption, guidelines on the design, production and issuance of the African passport.”

While noting the various challenges involved in moving freely within the continent, Mahamat applauded the few African countries that have adopted and implemented the visa-free policy.

“I congratulate those Member States that have taken measures to ease the procedures for the entry of African nationals into their territories, and urge those that have not yet done so to join this growing momentum,” he said.

“In this context, the Commission will continue to pay particular attention to the free movement of persons, as the persisting obstacles to our citizens’ movement within their own continent are simply unacceptable.“

Once this is finalised, it will take Africans one step closer to achieving their goal of exploring and moving freely within the African continent.

As a today, only Benin and Seychelles offer visa free to all countries in the African continent. Hopefully other countries will follow lead.

With the release of the African Union Passport, it will become super easy to visit other African countries. What do you think about this?