African Passport Launched in Kigali

PUBLISHED ON July 25th, 2016

African Passport Launched in Kigali

The launch of the Pan-African passport was one of the most memorable milestones at the just-ended 27th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) in Kigali, Rwanda.

The African passport will be the third for citizens in the East African Community after the national and the East African passport.

Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the chairperson of the AU Commission, handed two representational African passports to President Paul Kagame, and to the head of the AU, President Idriss Deby of Chad.

“At the summit in January 2016 this year, you decided that we must launch the African passport. We are making this start with our heads of state and government, foreign ministers, the leadership of the regional economic communities (RECs) and the leadership of the representatives of the AU executive councils and organs,” she said in her opening remarks.

Dlamini-Zuma also urged heads of state to create conducive conditions for member states to issue the passport to their citizens, “within their national policies, as and when they are ready.”

The passport seeks to create advantageous visa-regimes across the continent and later on create a pathway for a visa-free Africa, under the AU agenda of the “Africa We Want.”

She explained that after sharing aspirations of African citizens, the commission adopted Agenda 2063, which is a 50-year framework towards a continent that is integrated, peaceful and prosperous, driven by its own citizens and playing a dynamic role in the world.

“The Africa we have today is full of hope, possibility and optimism, but is also a cause of anguish in some areas. Whilst the farmers, traders, students, entrepreneurs, professionals, teachers, builders, nurses, and innovators from our continent are hard at work and incomes have begun to rise; there are still parts of our continent, where Africans are desperately yearning for peace and the space to rebuild their lives,” she said.

Source: All Africa

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