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At the just concluded Africa CEO Forum, renowned Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote complained about bottlenecks to intra-Africa trade, giving an example that he requires a visa to travel to over 30 African countries.
To put things in perspective, Dangote Cement Plc, which is owned by the mogul, is Sub-Saharan Africa’s leading cement company, with a production capacity of 52.0 million tonnes per year across ten countries. He runs the largest cement production firm in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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He has other business interests that are pan African in nature, which requires him to move regularly between different countries.
On the other hand, people – include those in business – holding passports from elsewhere, especially Europe and North America, have unfettered access to almost all African countries, and this is among the major challenges that intra-Africa trade still grapples with.
Intra-Africa trade is currently much lower than trade with other continents. This means African countries are missing out on opportunities to sell their goods and services to each other, which could create jobs and boost economic growth across the continent.
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And this is irrespective of the fact that countries six years ago established the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to ease trade amongst African countries, which continue to grapple with trade imbalance despite the enormous potential that the continent possesses.
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Other challenges that inhibit trade on the continent are the air transportation bottlenecks where it is more costly to fly from one African country to another than flying to a far-flung country in Europe or even Asia.
It must be noted that in the absence of reliable intra-Africa road or railway network, air transport is the only viable means of transport but it costs an arm and a leg. It will require political will across board to address these critical challenges.
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The good news is that at least our business community has a forum like this one that has just ended in Kigali, to air out their grievances and the hope is that finally, their pain points will be heard and finally addressed.
However, to be able to address this, we have to start somewhere. Some countries must set the stage for others to follow, and to show them that actually, there are more benefits to opening doors to fellow Africans.
Rwanda has taken a lead. In 2018, the country announced that holders of passports from all African countries would be getting their visas on arrival to Rwanda, and most recently waived visa fees on the same.
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Others have followed with similar initiatives but they remain few. We must move faster to address these challenges for the prosperity of our mother continent.
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