Introducing the 38-Visa Barrier: Aliko Dangote’s Campaign to Bring Down Africa’s Barriers

By Adonis Byemelwa

Aliko Dangote is a billionaire industrialist whose empire defines African self-reliance, spanning cement, sugar, and salt to the world’s largest single-train refinery. Yet, for all his capital and clout, one obstacle remains famously impenetrable, defying even his vast resources: the African border.

Despite his stature, the continent he calls home remains a maze of red tape that no amount of wealth has yet been able to unlock. Dangote revealed in a landmark conversation with International Finance Corporation (IFC) Managing Director Makhtar Diop that he needs 38 visas to move around Africa.

This has become a rallying call for any big economic reform. “One day I just sat down and said okay, enough, everything was potential, potential,” Dangote said. “But how do we make this potential a reality? That means I have 38 visas to move around. Now, how do I invest if I’m not able to move?

To Dangote, the ridiculous need for one of industry’s titans to collect dozens of stamps to receive residence in his backyard is the ultimate representation of why Africa remains “caged.”

 It was this frustration that led to the formation of the African Renaissance Group, a coalition comprised of the most powerful corporate chief executives from across the continent (including Diop himself) with one specific objective: free movement of people, goods and services.

The visa issue is not just a hassle for the rich- it is taxing every single African consumer. Dangote identified intra-African trade as a major contributor to poverty, which he labelled « pricey ».

 In the course of our dialogue, he pointed out an astonishing fact: that at present it is less expensive to ship goods from Spain to Lagos than it is to move those goods from the port of Lagos to Accra in Ghana.

As you attempt the crossing, “it can take a week, if you’re lucky,” said Dangote. The solo traveller during downtime: “If you have no luck, you don’t know anyone, you’re gonna be sitting there for two weeks.

You cannot trade with your neighbours like this at all whatsoever, there’s no way. This is doubled by the fact that foreign nationalities are predominant in the shipping lanes.

The African Renaissance for Dangote is reclaiming these routes, on land, at sea, and in the air. The founder pointed to the exorbitant expense of regional air travel, saying a short hop from Lomé to Accra can run as high as $600, a price that keeps many would-be entrepreneurs across the continent grounded.

With support from the IFC, Africa Renaissance Group aims to smash down these so-called “roadblocks”, hindrances that keep Africa trapped in its own economic cage. The aspiration is to replicate the integration of capital and labour in the European Union, where these factors are allocated to their most productive use.

Dangote wrote that as long as a Nigerian entrepreneur cannot simply load up his car and drive to Benin or a Kenyan student get on an aeroplane straight to Togo without tons of bureaucratic red tape and ridiculous cost, nothing has changed, the so-called “Continental Free Trade Area” (AfCFTA) will always be paper.

Talking to Diop, Dangote said: “The problem is not demand, the problem is delivery.” Using the “voice and his mouth” that he secured through decades of prosperous investing, instead of simply constructing factories, Dangote appears determined to transform a generation of African industrialists so that they will not need 38 visas to save the world.