Nigerian billionaire and BUA Group founder, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has strongly criticized Africa’s economic integration efforts, stating that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has failed to deliver on its core promises. Speaking on Thursday at the prestigious Africa Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, Rabiu shared a deeply frustrating personal airport experience to illustrate the rigid “visa walls” and administrative hurdles that continue to restrict the movement of people and capital across the continent.
Addressing an audience of over 2,500 business leaders, heads of state, and international investors, the industrialist recalled an incident from February 2025 that perfectly captured the contradictions of modern African diplomacy. After flying overnight from Lagos to attend the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, South African immigration officials turned Rabiu away at the airport because his visa had expired by just a single day.
While Rabiu accepted full responsibility for the administrative oversight, noting that his crew had failed to check the validity dates before departure, it was what he witnessed during his four-hour wait at the immigration desk that sparked his outrage.
He told delegates that during those four hours, three international flights arrived from Europe, and every single passenger on those flights entered South Africa without a visa, while he stood at the same immigration desk and was denied entry as an African on African soil.
The AfCFTA, which officially came into force in 2021 across 55 African Union member states, was envisioned as a historic milestone to create a single continental market, eliminate tariffs, and enable the seamless movement of goods and people. However, Rabiu argued that the reality on the ground tells a completely different story.
The billionaire disclosed that BUA Group, one of Nigeria’s largest conglomerates spanning cement, sugar, and infrastructure, encountered direct resistance when attempting to expand into various African markets under the AfCFTA framework.
While some nations engaged constructively, others actively maintained administrative barriers and legacy import structures designed to block regional competition. Pointing out the irony that European citizens often face fewer travel restrictions within Africa than the continent’s top job creators and wealth generators, Rabiu stated bluntly that AfCFTA is simply not working as it should.
According to Rabiu, Africa’s economic evolution cannot rely solely on signed treaties, and he outlined five interconnected pillars that must work together to unlock the continent’s true potential.
These pillars include Capital, which involves mobilizing and retaining African wealth to fund major projects; Policy, to align regulations so businesses can scale without borders; Infrastructure, for building the physical transport and digital networks required for trade; Value Addition, to move away from raw material exportation toward localized manufacturing; and Integration, which requires completely eradicating protectionist mindsets and visa barriers.
Without genuine and coordinated cross-border cooperation, Rabiu warned that Africa would remain nothing more than a collection of fragmented and isolated small markets. He emphasized that these individual markets are simply too small and unpredictable to attract the massive scale of industrial investment required to lift millions of people out of poverty.
