Africa launches one passport

Africa launches one passport; the long awaited African one passport was on Sunday launched in Kigali-Rwanda during the opening ceremony of the 27th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union. The Chairperson of the African Union Commission handed over two representational African passports to President Paul Kagame, and to the Chairperson of the African Union, President Idriss Deby of Chad.

The move to launch the African passport was reached during the Summit in January this year, with the AU deciding that the passport would be launched in Kigali starting with Heads of State and Government, with Foreign Ministers, the leadership of the Representatives of the AU Executive Councils and Organs this has since been overwhelmed by several requests and inquiries of the African people.

The summit urged Heads of State to create conditions for member states to issue the passport to their citizens, “within their national policies when they are ready, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda was the first East African Head of state to hold an AU passport. This was a great step taken by the AU and indeed many see the launching of this passport as one of the milestones, with off course high expectations that it would facilitate the seamless mobility of Africans and also ease trade and to create advantageous visa. regimes across the continent. (Creating a pathway for a visa free).

Through his Twitter handle, Lamin Manneh, the One – UN Rwanda Resident Coordinator, described the launch of the African passport as “One of the high moments” of the summit. Last week, Louise Mushikiwabo, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, said Rwanda has moved ahead, with popularizing the Pan-African passport, with modalities already in place to print and issue the sophisticated travel document sooner than later.