By Ntombi Mhlongo
More and more African countries are embracing visa exemption among the most important governmental policies influencing international travel and tourism.
This comes at a time when world leaders are looking for solutions to drive job creation, economic growth, and investment promotion.
Over the past 15 years, international travel has been supported by huge strides in travel facilitation, with the percentage of travellers required to obtain a traditional visa decreasing from 77 per cent in 2008 to 53 per cent in 2018.
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The latest country to join the fray is Mozambique which has announced visa exemption for 28 countries for tourism and business. According to FurtherAfrica News, a Council of Ministers has approved a decree allowing the exemption.
The exemption applies to visitors holding ordinary passports and allows for a 30-day stay, renewable to an additional 60 days. It has been reported that the model adopted by the Mozambican government is similar to the US visa waiver program in the sense that it requires travellers to register on a platform for pre-screening at least 48 hours before travelling and to pay a processing fee.
The visa exemption announcement follows the launch of a platform last December that allowed prospective visitors to apply for an electronic pre-authorization to travel into the country.
Mozambique announces visa exemption for 28 countries after the introduction of the Mozambican e-Visa which reportedly has seen an increase of over 30 per cent in the volume of travellers entering the country compared to the same period in the previous year.
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The eVisa platform commits the country to respond to applications within five days, but general feedback places an average response at 24 hours and the few issues reported are usually created by users not
uploading the required documentation.
FurtherAfrica News highlighted that as Mozambique announces visa exemption for 28 countries, it advances measure 13 (which proposes changes for the Visa regime) of the Economic Acceleration Measures Package (PAE) announced by President Nyusi on August 2022 contains 20 reform measures aimed to deliver a path for a more competitive and more accessible country to visitors and investors alike.
The stimulus package implementation is coordinated by a delivery unit created for the effect under the country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance.
