Strict visa regimes in Africa are a huge disservice to the continent’s aspirations of transitioning from a developing to a developed continent, says Aliko Dangote. Photo credit The Cable
Eight years later after Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man lamented Africa’s strict visa regime, little has changed. In an interview in 2016, Dangote said that he needed 38 visas to travel across Africa. Fast forward eight years later, while speaking at the Africa CEO Forum, Africa’s richest man said he currently needs 35 visas to travel on the African continent.
Essentially when taking the words of Dangote as is, it means Africa has recorded minimal progress in its open borders initiative. The minimal almost immaterial progress when juxtaposed with the African Union (AU)’s “vision and roadmap … of scraping visa requirements for all African citizens by 2018,” demonstrates a rather puzzling and embarrassing commitment to achieve set out goals and objectives.
Dangote during the discussions at the Africa CEO Forum held in Kigali Rwanda said many investors like him don’t have much time to visit embassies and go through the visa application processes. As business people and investors, the ease of doing business and free movement across the continent is imperative for the economic benefit of the continent at large. Owing to this, the current strict visa regimes in Africa are a huge disservice to the continent’s aspirations of transitioning from a developing to a developed continent.
“As an investor, as someone who wants to make Africa great, I have to apply for 35 different visas on my passport. I really don’t have the time to go and drop off my passport in embassies to get a visa,” Dangote said.
The 67-year-old businessman said what’s even more worrying and frustrating for Africans is that travelling across Africa is more difficult for them than for Europeans. Stressing a point Patrick Pouyanne, the CEO of Total Energies sitting next to him, Dangote said, I can assure you that Patrick doesn’t need 35 visas on a French passport, which means you have freer movement than myself in Africa.”
For countries that have taken the lead in eliminating strict visa regimes through entirely scrapping visas for all African nationals such as the host country Rwanda, Dangote commended them saying what they did should set a good precedent that other countries should follow. Other countries that have entirely scrapped visas for all Africans are Benin, The Gambia, and Seychelles.
Kenya in the recent past made the headlines after President William Ruto famously said he had eliminated visas for all African nationals travelling to his country. He announced at the time that the visa regime was being replaced with an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). Many at the time welcomed the move and heralded it as a step in the right direction. However, as the ETA began to be implemented, it became clear that it was pretty much similar to a visa regime – the supposed elimination of visas was just a matter of semantics. Currently, without processing fees, the ETA costs $30 and takes several days to be approved.
The comments by Dangote have prompted several Africans to air their views on Africa’s strict visa regimes. Many argued against the visa regimes with some saying their personal experiences have been characterized by discrimination, hostility and sky-high fees. Tayo Aina, a Nigerian travel filmmaker said he has had humiliating experiences in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa. At one point, he said he had to give a stool sample in front of an Ethiopian immigration officer. Because of the humiliating experience and the overall difficulty attached to using an African passport, Aina said he finally resorted to buying a foreign passport from the Caribbean country of St Kitts and Nevis that gives him more freedom as it allows him to go to more African countries compared to his Nigerian passport.
Giving his views on why African countries are not receptive to the idea of opening up their borders, migration researcher Alan Hirsch said this is largely necessitated by the fear of permanent migration. “There’s a fear in richer African countries that people from poorer nations might be looking for a way to permanently move there. A lot of Africans cross borders informally and we don’t have a real record of that. Some countries fear people applying for asylum and then disappearing under the radar,” Hirsch said.
Referencing the (unsuccessful) AU’s vision and roadmap to scrap visa requirements for all Africans by 2018 and current strict visa regimes across the continent, Larry Madowo writing for CNN said this demonstrates how African leaders in general are big when it comes to words and commitments but always fall short when it comes to implementation of ideas. He said this will ultimately affect other facets such as the recently instituted African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) whose success is largely premised on the free movement of people, goods and services.
The sentiments echoed by Madowo are in line with the remarks said by Dangote as part of the solutions to Africa’s strict visa regime. Dangote called upon African leaders to prioritize open borders and ease of doing business initiatives as the economic upliftment of the continent is solely hinged on Africans taking charge of their destiny. He said if foreigners are to come, then they will do so simply to add to what’s already been built.
“Our main job is to make sure the regional markets all work. Once they work, then we can now go to the AfCFTA. But then, for AfCFTA also, we need to make sure that it works. We cannot have a very promising continent and our intra-trade rate is less than 16 percent. Okay, so we Africans will have to do it. If we are waiting for foreigners to come and do it, then the development of Africa, is not going to happen. So, it can only happen to us Africans. We must risk our sources and make sure that we lead, and then we will have people who actually trust and believe in Africa like Patrick to come and help us to push to the next level,” Dangote said.
