East African Community Kenya passport.

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Kenyan passport among best in Africa, but doesn't offer much - report

Kenya may have one of the most powerful passports on the continent, but it is still falling behind on its attractiveness, signalling that more work is needed to lure investors or visitors who wish to take up another nationality.

This is according to findings of the Global Passport Index released on Monday. While the Kenyan passport is among the top 10 in Africa, the ranking shows, its holders do not have access to many privileges in investment, taxation and quality of life - the elements that often attract expatriates or visitors to a country.

The ranking by UK-based immigration consultancy firm Global Citizen Solutions (GCS) for the first time categorised 197 countries according to ease of travel for their holders, as well as investment opportunities available to them, and the quality of life provided by the specified countries.

Kenya is ranked among the top 10 in Africa on a list topped by Mauritius and Seychelles. The other countries are South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Tunisia, Namibia, Morocco and Lesotho, the report shows.

Investment opportunities 

But the ranking categorises the ‘real’ power of passports as giving the holder investment opportunities that are available to those who carry particular passports, as well as what kind of life they may be offered.

The ranking, however, shows that Kenya’s passport power in terms of investment opportunities is worse than that of war-ravaged Libya at 136. Other countries in the neighbourhood rank just as poorly or worse. Uganda (164), Rwanda (166), Tanzania (174), Burundi (182) and South Sudan (192) are among the poorest on the continent and beyond in these categories.

The firm argues that previous rankings that focused only on how a passport holder enjoys non-visa, visa-free travel or visas on arrival ignored the crucial elements people seeking second citizenship look for: whether they may be exempted from certain taxes, permit fees and whether they can access certain services that improve their lives such as free healthcare insurance and security.

Ms Patricia Casaburi, the managing director at Global Citizen Solutions, said the firm developed the criteria beyond travel mobility to truly determine how passports influence investment choices and identify areas governments can work on to attract foreigners.

“From feedback obtained via years of experience working directly with our clients, we realised that what really mattered for them when looking at a second citizenship was not only mobility but also lifestyle and investment opportunities,” she said in a statement ahead of the launch on Monday.

“It quickly became apparent that the time was right to develop a passport index that took these factors into account, making a relatable, real methodology for comparing countries and their attractiveness for real-life choices. Our clients are looking not only for travel mobility but also lifestyle and financial stability too.” 

Work permit

Kenya’s economy was listed as “dynamic”, something that could normally improve the power of the passport. But Nairobi must work on its taxation policies, encourage market innovations and improve standards of service for global competitiveness.

This means that simple procedures such as applying for a work permit or a licence or registering a business should be faster and less bureaucratic than today, for example.

Kenya must also work on the cost of living, including cushioning the poor and providing regular and sustainable health insurance. Countries were ranked using the reports on happiness indices, cost of living, freedom, sustainable development and migration policies.

Most of the countries ranked poorly in this index had been showing improvements on the now-defunct World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings. The bank discontinued the listings after discovering the data included did not meet the criteria set.

In this report, countries that have set up some of the most progressive immigration programmes, but are unstable or have a history of insecurity, were still ranked poorly on the ‘real’ power of their passports, indicating that an open door must be followed with more incentives for foreigners.

“We took special care in creating the Enhanced Mobility Index because a simple list of countries that offer visa-free travel is not enough to rank a passport,” said Vladimir Lopez-Bassols, one of the analysts who helped prepare the ranking.

The index published on Monday borrows from reports from UN agencies such as Unesco, other groups like the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Inter-American Development Bank, studies by Gallup, the Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy and the World Economic Forum, among other sources.

The researchers measured what they called “overall attractiveness” of each passport for relocation by foreigners or second nationality. They split the ranking into three groups based on mobility index (ease of travel), investment index (opportunities and privileges available to invest) and quality of life (safety, health, protection, education, etc).

The scores from each category enabled the final rank on the real power of a passport, but the researchers used 11 indicators pulled from reports and previous studies.

In the world, the usual suspects had the highest scores. The United States, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, Norway and New Zealand had the best passports overall in the world. But they were not the best in everything.

For example, the US came 10th on enhanced mobility, as holders of its passport faced travel hurdles on visas compared with other countries. But US passport holders enjoyed easier investments in their country and were eligible for some of the best social security programmes in the world.