Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has bemoaned the difficulties he goes through when traveling to the African Continent with his Nigerian Passport.
According to the Nigerian businessman and industrialist, someone who really wants to make Africa great has to apply for 35 different visas on his passport before traveling to the African Continent.
Speaking at the Africa CEO Forum held in Kigali, Dangote emphasized the importance of making the African Continent visa free to its members.
“Even I complained to President Kagame,………Here is a best example but I told him that as an investor, as somebody who really wants to make Africa great, I have to now apply for 35 different visas on my passport, and I told Mr. President that I really don’t have the time to go and be dropping my passport at embassies to get a visa. But the most annoying thing is that, yes, if you are treating everybody the same, then I can understand,” The founder and chair Dangote Cement lamented.
“I can assure you Patrick Pouyanne [CEO and Chairman of Total Energies] doesn’t need 35 visas… You don’t need 35 visas on a French passport, which means you have more free movement than myself in Africa,” He said.
Aliko Dangote also stressed that The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) needs to work in order to promote Africa.
“…But will change and what I keep saying right now, our main job is to make sure the regional markets all work, okay, once they work, then we can now go to AfCFTA but the AfCFTA also we need to make sure that it works. We can not have a very promising continent and our intra-trade is less than %16. We Africans have to do it, if we are waiting for Foreigners to come and do it for the development of Africa is not going to happen.”
“So it can only happen by us, Africans, we must risk our resources and make that we lead then we will have people actually trust and believe in African like Patrick to come and help us to push to the next level.
Source: Elvisanokyenews.com
