The Nigerian passport has secured the 191st position out of 199 countries, marking it as the 10th weakest travel document globally, according to the latest findings from VisaGuide’s World Passport Index.
“As of April, the Nigerian passport only emerged above countries like North Korea, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Somalia,” the report highlighted.
The index, a comprehensive passport ranking system, employs the Destination Significance Score (DSS) to assess and rank the passports of various countries and territories based on their strength.
“The rankings consider multiple factors to determine passport strength and assign a unique value to each passport,” the report explained.
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Singaporean passport clinched the top spot on the chart as the world’s strongest, closely followed by the Italian passport.
“Spanish, French, and German passports secured the third, fourth, and fifth positions respectively,” the report revealed.
Explaining the methodology, the report stated, “To achieve a distinctive ranking, we assign a value, known as Destination Significance Score (DSS), to each travel destination.”
It further detailed, “The DSS value is based on several factors including the entry policy enforced, GDP, Power Index, Tourism Index, and Human Development Index (HDI). This score is then multiplied with the value of the visa requirement of the destination country towards the selected passport holders.”
The index also took into account visa-free travel, electronic travel authorization, visa on arrival, electronic visa (e-visa), embassy or government-approved visas, passport-free travel, and banned entry.
Highlighting the significance of DSS, the report emphasized, “Being able to travel visa-free to a destination with a higher DSS gives the selected passport a higher value than having visa-free access to a country with lower DSS.”
“This methodology ensures a more precise ranking for each passport,” concluded the index.