Recently, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame announced that Rwanda will allow Africans to travel visa-free to the country, making Rwanda the latest nation on the continent to make such announcement, aimed at rivaling Europe’s Schengen zone travel policy.
Kagame touted AFRICA as a “unified tourism destination” and I totally agree. In his speech, Paul Kagame said, “Any African can get on a plane to Rwanda whenever they wish and they will not pay a thing to enter our country.” He said this at the 23rd Global Summit of the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Furthermore, he said, “We should not lose sight of our continental market. Africans are the future of global tourism as our middle class continues to grow at a fast pace in the decades to come.” Continue Reading…
With these words on marble, Rwanda became the fourth African country to remove travel restrictions for Africans, after Gambia, Benin, and Seychelles. By December 31, 2023, Africans will be able to visit Kenya visa-free as well, according to the Kenyan president, Ruto, and that will bring the total number to F I V E. That’s 5 out of 54 countries!
Very poor but highly commendable. I’m impressed. I’m encouraged. The shackles of this age long colonial enslavement are slowly beginning to fall off and Africans are about to finally start living, not merely existing.
How do you explain the fact that Africans on the continent of Africa, for all these years have been subjected to tortuous visa procedures just to get across and visit their own kind? So bad that sometimes, even getting visas to Europe come faster and easier than getting visas to visit brothers and sisters on the same continent.
Africans from the west can’t visit Africans in the East or South without being screened and tortured with strict visas proceedings that serve no purpose other than that of the colonials. Meanwhile, at the same exact time, someone from Europe and America can freely stroll into the same countries in Africa that fellow Africans are being denied access to.
It wasn’t just travel restrictions they used to shackle and kill our ability to bond with one another, they used telecommunications as well. That’s why it’s ten times cheaper to call America from most African capitals including Nigeria, than to call anywhere in Africa. If you doubt this, try calling Ghana from Nigeria and compare that to calling the US from the same location. Ghana is 45-50mins flight from Nigeria.
How are we supposed to trade amongst ourselves if we can’t even see eye to eye? I was in Malawi about three years ago and I made a video to express my frustration and anger at this evil that’s been bedeviling our continent for ages and that’s why I’m excited that today, we are finally beginning to take steps to correct this.
Africa’s true potentials are buried in the freedom of movement for Africans across AFRICA. Imagine Nigerian investors knowing that setting up businesses and overseeing them in Rwanda and Kenya is as easy as doing same in Nigeria with NO unnecessary travel restrictions.
Imagine Kenyan and South African business people freely navigating the continent in search of new markets and setting up shop with ease. Trust me, with this, Africans wouldn’t be needing to ship that much to Europe or elsewhere.
We Africans will patronize Africa and sustain AFRICA as the emerging economic superpower that it is. We have all it takes and we can do it. INTRA-AFRICAN TRADE is the lost key to our economic freedom and I’m super excited we found it through these bold, aggressive continental immigration reforms.
Kudos to Rwanda, Seychelles, and all the other countries that have decided to take the lead. History will be kind to you all. Praying and hoping other African countries will arise and shine also. Continue Reading…
Viva!
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