KIGALI, Rwanda – Abdul Samad Rabiu, the founder and Chairman of BUA Group, has sparked a conversation on continental integration after recounting a frustrating ordeal where he was denied entry into South Africa while European travelers were ushered in without hindrance.
Okay News reports that Rabiu shared the story on Thursday during his keynote presentation, “Africa at Scale: Capital, Policy, and the Architecture of Growth,” at the ongoing Africa CEO Forum in Kigali. The billionaire businessman described an incident from February 2025, when he flew from Lagos to Cape Town to attend the Mining Indaba, only to discover upon arrival at 6:00 AM that his visa had expired just 24 hours earlier.
“I had a personal experience… Unknown to me, my visa had expired the day before,” Rabiu told the audience. “We were there for four hours, but at the end of the day, I had to turn back. I was turned back to Lagos.”
While Rabiu accepted responsibility for the oversight, he highlighted a stark irony he witnessed while waiting at the immigration desk. He noted that three international flights from Europe arrived during his delay, and “every passenger on those three flights went into Cape Town without any visa.”
“I had an issue with being an African in Africa, being turned away because I do not have a visa and foreigners from other continents were coming in and were allowed to enter without a visa,” Rabiu stated emphatically. “This must change.”
The BUA boss argued that such administrative hurdles are not just personal inconveniences but structural constraints that frustrate the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). He warned that while frameworks for integration exist on paper, the practical reality for African businesses remains one of “administrative barriers and legacy import structures.”
“The 21st century will not reward detached brilliance, but coordinated execution,” Rabiu added, calling for harmonized investment frameworks and clear, transparent rules across borders to allow African capital to move at scale.
