Nigerian passport ranks 94th globally, can access 46 countries

With access to 46 visa-free destinations, the Nigerian passport has been ranked the 43rd-strongest in Africa and 94th globally by the Henley Passport Index.

This index uses official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information and is regarded as the standard reference tool for assessing passport strength globally.

The Nigerian passport moved one place from its 95th global ranking in 2024 to 94th in 2025.

With rankings of 103rd, 98th, 97th, and 94th in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively, this is the highest the passport has ranked in the last four years.

Two Asian countries, Singapore and Japan, clinched the first and second positions in the global passport index. In 2024, the passports of these two countries were among the top six strongest globally.

A corresponding statement published alongside the index reveals that Nigerians and other Africans are more likely to experience visa racism, as one in two Africans who apply for Schengen visas are rejected.

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“In 2023, African countries accounted for just 2.8% of global applications out of a total of over 10 million worldwide, yet half of their applications were rejected. Even more concerning is that this trend has worsened over the past decade, with rejection rates more than doubling during this period.”

Many Nigerians have decried the challenges they encounter due to the weakness of the Nigerian passport.

These weaknesses transcend limited visa-free destinations and also include how Nigerians are perceived in other countries.

A Quondam Fellow of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and Member of the Advisory Committee of the Andean Foundation, Stephen Klimczuk-Massion, noted in the 2022 Henley Global Mobility Report that a country’s passport influences the kind of reception its citizens receive while traveling.

“Depending on which passport you carry and where you are going, a passport will have an impact on the kind of welcome you will receive, where you can go, and how safe you will be when you get there.

“Now more than ever, it’s a mistake to think of a passport as merely a travel document that allows you to get from A to B. The relative strength or weakness of a particular national passport directly affects the quality of life for the passport holder and may even be a matter of life and death in some circumstances.”