Nigeria has scaled several points to rank 89th in the 2026 Henley Passport Index, moving higher from its previous 103rd position on the global passport evaluator.

The number of destinations that a nation’s passport holder can access without a visa determines its placement in the rankings.

Henley & Partners’ research team collated travel data collected from International Air Transport Association (IATA) for the 2026 report covering 199 nations and 227 travel destinations.

Nigerian passport holders can visit 44 nations without a visa, deemed a weak capacity compared to other African countries such as

Seychelles which ranked 24th and its citizens can enter 154 nations visa-free while Mauritius ranked 27th and South Africa placed 48th as its citizens require no visa to enter 101 nations.

Despite the upgrade in Nigeria’s score, the West African nation still fell among the 20 worst performing passports globally with nations like Somali.

Having unrestricted access to 192 nations, the Index ranked Singapore in the first position. Japan ranked second with access to 188 countries, while Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland jointly placed third, each offering visa-free entry to 186 destinations.

Within Africa, Seychelles retained its 24th position, while Mauritius ranked 27th and South Africa 48th. Other African countries also performed fairly, with Namibia ranked 62nd, Morocco 65th and Malawi 66th. Kenya placed 68th, while Tanzania and Ghana shared the 69th position.

UK and Canada placed 7th and 8th respectively while the U.S. placed 10th in The Index rankings.

Based on The Henley Index, Afghanistan has the world’s worst passport in 101st position, Syria placed 100th, Iraq sat on 99th position, Yemen and Pakistan ranked 98th and Somalia 97th.