THERESA ONAJI-BENSON: Is Africa really open for business?

After being denied a visa to attend a conference in Egypt, I had a conversation about the issue with a British academic and Fulbright professor at Strathmore University in Kenya. I shared my frustration, as a Nigerian living and working in South Africa, at being stonewalled by a fellow African nation.

That short discussion got me thinking. You don’t have to be an expert on the topic to hear the slogan, “Africa is open for business.” It is emblazoned on T-shirts and we hear it on radio adverts. The spark for the treaty seems to have come from a 2016 publication by the African Development Bank that found — in line with my recent conversation — that it is easier for North Americans to travel in Africa than it is for Africans to travel in Africa. The treaty came into effect about five years later, in January 2021, when the first batch of goods under the preferential agreement were shipped from Ghana to South Africa.

My musing took me to work done by my colleague, Prof Adrian Saville, founding director at the Centre for African Management & Markets. For several years he produced the Visa Africa integration index. Armed with a treasure trove of big data from the global financial services company, Saville analysed, among other things, ways in which people spend money across borders, and where people spend money.

But all of that felt quite theoretical, as I was still ticked off about the unwelcoming treatment from the Egyptian visa authorities. Trying not to take it personally — and to look for a silver lining — I searched for evidence that African countries are becoming more welcoming to African citizens. Thank goodness, they are.

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