Aliko Dangote, president of the
Dangote Group, says he, and a few other people, have got the African Union
passport, but he still was asked to get a visa before he could enter Angola.
The African Union passport is
supposed to be the unifying passport aimed at solving Africa’s cross-border
issues on the continent.
The passport is a common document
that is set to replace existing nationally-issued African Union member state
passports and exempt bearers from having to obtain any visas for all 55 states
in Africa.
But despite the existence of this
passport, some countries in Africa still insist on visas on the AU passport —
defeating the entire purpose of the travel document.
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest
man, was on the receiving end of the passport’s failure, as he was asked to get
a passport to enter Angola, even when he was invited by the country’s
president.
Sharing his experience with
British-Sudanese billionaire, Mo Ibrahim, at the governance weekend in Abidjan,
Dangote said he still has to carry six, seven passports.
“They have done this African
Union passport; I carry six to seven passports because of visas. Even though I
am an investor, I need visas in almost 38 countries,” Dangote said.
“Now they have issued us the
African Union passport, a few of us. I didn’t pay for it. I’ve got one, and let
me tell you this, [with] the one that I have, I went to South Africa quite Ok.
“But [with] this same African
Union passport, I was invited by the president of Angola to come and see him,
and I had to go — normally, I don’t travel much during fasting period, but I
went.
“When I went there, I had to be
given visa on African Union passport. It is not about fees, when you say
African Union passport, you should be able to go everywhere, free of charge.
“[But] I had to apply for visa,
and intentionally, when I applied for the visa, I also applied on the African
Union passport and I gave them that too to stamp on it.”
 |
Paul Kagame of Rwanda, as AU
President, was the first to travel on the continental passport. He travelled to
Chad without a visa.
DANGOTE: NIGERIA WILL SIGN CFTA
TOMORROW IF…
Dangote asked the African Union
to fix the hanging issues around the passport and regional trade before the
continent moves to the continental free trade agreement.
He said one of its factories in
the southwest is only 28 kilometers away from Benin Republic, but the west
African country does not allow Dangote import cement into the country.
Dangote said the country prefers
to buy cement from China, which is thousands of kilometres away, than to buy
from Nigeria, which is only a few kilometres away from its borders.
The multi-billionaire says Africa
must fix regional trading and see Nigeria sign the continental free trade deal
“tomorrow”.
The Africa Continental Free Trade
Agreement (AfCFTA) during the course of the week, got enough signatures for its
enforcement — without Nigeria’s signature.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com