Tanzania’s and Kenya’s passports are now the eighth most powerful in Africa and 71 globally.

The Henley Passport Index Report shows that the number of countries that Tanzanias can visit without a visa or obtain it on arrival has increased to 72 from 64 in January last year. The country’s mobility score improved six places in the latest ranking.

The mobility score measures the number of countries a person holding Tanzania’s passport can visit without having a visa or the nations where they can get a visa on arrival.

Tanzania emerged eighth, a spot it shared with Kenya in the latest ranking and behind Mauritius, Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Seychelles and South Africa.

Last year, Kenya’s travel document was placed at position 77 globally on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“…Covid-19 and its interplay with instability and inequality has highlighted and exacerbated the shocking disparity in international mobility between wealthy developed nations and their poorer counterparts,” said the report.

Uganda emerged at position 76, with Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan coming in at 82, 92 and 99, respectively, according to the report.

The mobility score, an initiative of the Henley Passport Index, had downgraded the strength of Kenya’s travel document last year because of the devastating effects of Covid-19 that lowered the number of countries one would visit without a visa.

Japan and Singapore tied position one with citizens of these countries able to visit 192 countries without visas. Germany emerged third in the global ranking.