ECOWAS passport ranking (2026): Ghana on top, Nigeria last

Nigeria is the giant of West Africa: Africa's most populous country, with around 240 million people. Yet its passport finishes last in ECOWAS. And the champion wins by a single point. Welcome to the ECOWAS Passport Cup.

The rules of the game

• 12 passports compete: the current ECOWAS members. Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger left on 29 January 2025 (you'll find them further down, outside the ranking). Guinea-Bissau, suspended from the bloc's bodies since the November 2025 coup, is still a member: it plays.
• One point for each country you can enter without going through an embassy: visa-free, visa on arrival or e-visa, it all counts.
• In a tie, the deciding factor is the number of visa-free countries (like goal difference), then the number of visas on arrival (like goals scored).
• The scores come from Travora's visa directories, checked on 4 October 2026.

The full ranking

Key takeaways

Nigeria, bottom of the table

With 86 points, Nigeria finishes 9 points behind second-to-last Liberia (95). Its problem: the fewest visa-free countries (26) and few e-visas (48).

Gambia, the paradox

Gambia has the most visa-free countries in all of ECOWAS: 45. But with only 40 e-visas, it scores just 97 points and finishes 10th.

A three-way tie… plus one

Benin, Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal all score 103. On visa-free countries, Benin goes ahead (38). Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal are still level (30 each): so we look at visas on arrival, and Côte d'Ivoire wins, 14 to 13.

Above them is Ghana: 104 points, champion by a single point.

What about the three countries that left?

Outside the ranking, Niger would score 101, Burkina Faso 100 and Mali 97: none of them would make the podium. For travel between them and ECOWAS, nothing changes for now: the Alliance of Sahel States remains visa-free for ECOWAS nationals, and vice versa.

Why these numbers differ from the big rankings

International rankings such as the Henley Passport Index don't count e-visas. Yet for an African traveller they change everything: you apply for an e-visa online, with no appointment. That's why Travora counts them, as in our top 30 most powerful passports, where the gap with African passports is huge.

Check your passport

On Travora, choose your departure country: the visa guide shows the countries that are visa-free, visa on arrival and e-visa, with a page for each destination. For example, the Ghana guide, the Togo guide or the Côte d'Ivoire guide.

The detailed episodes of the series: the Ivorian passport and the Togolese passport.