World's Best Passports: Japan 1st, UAE 15th, Nigeria 100th!!! See FULL list

Nigeria has moved up three places as its passport is ranked 100th out of 116 countries, but it is still among the least powerful in Africa, the latest 2022 Henley Passport Index shows.

The index, published by Henley & Partners, a London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm, ranks 199 passports based on the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. 

The Nigerian passport, according to the index, only guarantees visa-free access to 46 countries of the world an improvement from 45 as at March 2022. The African countries with the least powerful passports are Somalia, Libya, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. 

Countries Nigerians can visit Visa-free:

Benin 

Burkina Faso 

Cameroun 

Cabo Verde 

Chad 

Comoros 

Côte d’Ivoire 

Djibouti 

Ethiopia 

The Gambia 

Ghana 

Guinea 

Guinea-Bissau 

Kenya 

Lesotho 

Liberia 

Madagascar 

Mali 

Mauritania 

Mauritius 

Mozambique 

* Niger 

Rwanda 

São Tomé and Príncipe 

Senegal 

Seychelles 

Sierra Leone 

Somalia 

Togo 

Uganda 

Zambia 

Zimbabwe 

Iran 

Kyrgyzstan 

Maldives 

Timor-Leste 

Antigua and Barbuda 

Barbados 

Dominica 

Fiji 

Haiti 

Saint Kitts and Nevis 

Suriname 

Fiji 

Micronesia 

Tuvalu 

Vanuatu  

Emirati travellers are now able to visit 176 countries around the world on either a visa-free or visa-on-arrival basis…

The past two years have been hard on travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but according to the release of the latest Henley Passport Index, the UAE passport has retained its powerful status. 

In the latest ranking released by the authority, the UAE sits at number 15 on the list with a score of 176. It is the highest rank it has achieved since the launch of the ranking system back in 2016. It shares its position with Cyprus.

The UAE is also the only Arab nation to rank in the top 20.

According to the report, the UAE passport is declared a ‘pandemic winner’. Back in 2012, a decade ago, the UAE held the 64th position on the rankings with a score of just 106. In 2021, it ranked 16th on the list, sharing the spot with Chile, Monaco and Romania – proof that it is getting stronger as the years pass by.

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The top 15 countries on the Henley Passport Index can be found below:

1. Japan
2. Singapore / South Korea
3. Germany / Spain
4. Finland / Italy / Luxembourg
5. Denmark / Austria / Netherlands / Sweden
6. France / Ireland / Portugal / the UK
7. Belgium / New Zealand / Norway / Switzerland / the US
8. Australia / Canada / Czech Republic / Greece / Malta
9. Hungary
10. Lithuania / Poland / Slovakia
11. Estonia / Latvia / Slovenia
12. Iceland
13. Malaysia
14. Lichtenstein
15. The UAE / Cyprus

You can view the whole report here.