Claim: Sierra Leonean Passport Holders Can Travel to 66 Countries Without a Visa.
Source: News website / social media
Verdict: True
Researched by Idrissa Bangura
On February 3, 2025, Sierra Loaded, a Sierra Leonean website, shared an article listing 66 countries and claiming that Sierra Leonean passport holders can travel to these countries visa-free.
The article titled “Countries Sierra Leoneans Can Travel to Without a Visa in 2025” cited the 2025 Henley Global Passport Index as a source. It lists countries in Africa (32), Asia (10), the Caribbean (12), Oceania (9), and the Americas (4) as visa-free countries for Sierra Leonean passport holders.
As of the time this fact-check is being made, the article has been read 24,843 times.
“According to the latest rankings, Sierra Leonean passport holders can travel to 66 destinations worldwide without a visa,” it stated.
A similar claim made by Diamond Dietanuru Osakorigho (Pararan Mock News) resurfaced online a few weeks ago, in a video where he listed the 20 most powerful passports in Africa, placing Sierra Leone in 18th place and stating that one can use a Sierra Leonean passport to visit 65 countries without a visa.
Fact-Check
FactSpace West Africa investigated the claim, taking inventory of data as of August 2025, as supplied by Henley Index via email correspondence.
From a total of 277 destinations used for the ranking, we gleaned the following data for Sierra Leonean passport holders.
| Type of entry | Number of countries | |
| 1 | Visa-free | 46 |
| 2 | Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) | 3 |
| 3 | Visa on arrival (VOA) | 16 |
| 4 | Visa required | 212 |
Note the meaning of the following terms:
1. Visa-free – a person can enter a specific country without needing to obtain a visa beforehand
2. Visa on arrival – a type of visa that is issued to eligible travellers when they arrive at the port of entry of a country, rather than requiring them to obtain it in advance from a consulate or embassy.
3. Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA): a digital document that allows eligible foreign nationals to travel to certain countries for short-term visits without needing a traditional visa.
From the above, the Sierra Loaded article lumped up visa-free, ETA and VOA countries together as visa-free destinations when in fact, ETA and VOA also count as some form of visas.
We contacted Henley Global Passport Index via email:
In an email with the managers of the Henley Passport Index, an official said: “…in our methodology we count ETA and visa on arrival as part of ‘visa free’, as these require no pre-departure government approval.”
A definition of “visa-free” on their website further buttresses the email response. It read in part: “The Henley Passport Index also considers a destination as visa-free if it permits one to travel there without having to apply for a visa in advance — namely, if passport holders can obtain a visa on arrival (VOA), or an electronic travel authority (ETA) for that destination.”
From the Henley data, visa-free destinations are as follows:
| Visa-free | Visa-free | VOA and ETA |
| Bahamas | Kiribati | Bolivia |
| Bangladesh | Lesotho | Burundi |
| Barbados | Liberia | Cambodia (VOA) |
| Belize | Madagascar | Comoros Islands (VOA) |
| Benin | Malawi | Djibouti (VOA) |
| Botswana | Malaysia | Ethiopia (VOA) |
| British Virgin Islands | Mali | Iran (VOA) |
| Burkina Faso | Mauritius | Macao (SAR China) (VOA) |
| Cape Verde | Micronesia | Maldives (VOA) |
| Cook Islands | Montserrat | Mozambique (VOA) |
| Ivory Coast | Niger | Namibia (VOA) |
| Dominica | Nigeria | Nepal (VOA) |
| Eswatini | Niue | Palau Islands (VOA) |
| Fiji | Rwanda | Samoa (WS) (VOA) |
| Gambia | Senegal | Somalia (VOA) |
| Ghana | Singapore | St. Lucia (VOA) |
| Grenada | St. Vincent and the Grenadines | Tomor-Leste (VOA) |
| Guinea | Suriname | Tuvalu (VOA) |
| Guinea-Bissau | Togo | Seychelles (ETA) |
| Haiti | Trinidad and Tobago | Sri Lanka (ETA) |
| Jamaica | Uganda | St. Kitts and Nevis (ETA) |
| Kenya | Vanuatu |
Verdict
The above analysis shows that the Sierra Loaded article’s claim of visa-free destinations for Sierra Leonean passport holders is True.
Note: Idrissa Bangura is a member of the 2025 cohort of the FactSpace West Africa Volunteers project in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia and The Gambia.
