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Nigerians are facing significant visa rejections for intending travellers to Schengen nations amidst the growing rate of migration to developed countries. Half of all visa applications to the destination by Nigerians were rejected.
The latest Henley Global Mobility Report January 2025, published by Henley & Partners, indicates that out of 105,926 Schengen visa applications submitted by Nigerians in 2024, 42,940, representing 40.8 per cent of the total application were rejected.
Migration has been part of the Nigerian middle-class psyche for decades, but the migration rate has increased in the last four years as economic hardship continues to bite harder.
Inflation soared to an all-time high of 34.60 per cent in November 2024, fueling the cost-of-living crisis, unemployment, and lack of opportunities, thereby forcing thousands to seek better opportunities outside the country’s shores.
The rejection level thus placed Nigeria among the top 20 countries withthe most denied visas to the choice destination and ranked 11th on the list.
According to the report, the rejection, largely driven by passport power and identity-based visa policies, has more than doubled over the past decade and created substantial barriers to economic mobility for Nigerians and other African citizens.
Nigeria’s passport ranked 94th in the latest global most powerful passports.
Similarly, Africa also faced a higher rejection rate compared to other continents despite the insignificant volume of applications from the region.
The report showed that six of the top 10 countries facing the highest Schengen visa rejection rates are in Africa.
Comoros leads with a 61.3 per cent rejection rate, followed by Guinea-Bissau at 51 per cent, Ghana at 47.5 per cent, Mali at 46.1 per cent, Sudan at 42.3 per cent, and Senegal at 41.2per cent.
The World Bank and Nigeria inseparable
Three Asian countries and a European country complete the list: Pakistan with 49.6 per cent, Syria with 46 percent, and Bangladesh with 43.3 cent. Greece, despite being a European Union member and part of Europe’s Schengen area, holds the second-highest rejection rate at 56.4 per cent. Furthermore, the top 10 African countries, while submitting only 2.8 per cent of global Schengen visa applications, faced a rejection rate of 44.8 per cent. Half of the 277,792 applicants from the top 10 countries with the highest rejections were denied visas.
The report said: “Looking at broader regional patterns in 2023, the top 20 countries in Africa and Asia submitted 703,894 applications, representing 6.8 per cent of all Schengen visa applications, of which 40 per cent were rejected.
“The top 10 African countries faced particularly high rejection rates, with applicants experiencing a 45 per cent rejection rate, higher than combined Africa–Asia average of 40 per cent.”
Prof. Mehari Maru of the School of Transnational Governance and the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute and of Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, commenting on the report, said: ‘The global mobility divide is widening significantly. As the Henley Passport Index January 2025 edition reveals, global travel freedom has nearly doubled from 58 visa-free destinations in 2006 to 111 in 2025, but the gap between the most and least mobile nations has reached unprecedented levels.
“Africans face consistently higher rejection rates than their Asian and global peers. In 2023, despite submitting half as many applications as those from Asia, African applicants were twice as likely to be rejected, with rates 14 percentage points higher than Asian applicants.”
