South Africa Denied Me Entry Over Expired Visa While Europeans Walked In Freely — BUA Chairman

 By Kehinde Awosina 


South 

Abdul Samad Rabiu, Chairman of BUA Group, has narrated how South African immigration authorities denied him entry into the country over an expired visa, even as European travellers reportedly gained access without visa requirements.


Rabiu shared the experience while speaking at the Africa CEO Forum held in Kigali, Rwanda, during a session titled “Africa at Scale: Capital, Policy and the Architecture of Growth.” He explained that the incident occurred in February 2025 when he travelled from Lagos to Cape Town to attend the annual Mining Indaba conference. 


According to the billionaire businessman, he discovered on arrival that his visa had expired a day earlier, an oversight he blamed on his travel team for failing to verify the validity of the document before departure. He said he was delayed for several hours at the airport before eventually being returned to Nigeria. 


Rabiu, however, said his major concern was not the enforcement of immigration rules but what he described as unequal treatment between Africans and visitors from other continents. He noted that while he was held at the immigration desk, several international flights carrying mostly European passengers arrived and their occupants were allowed into South Africa without visas. 


The BUA chairman argued that the development reflects the broader challenges facing African integration and regional trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). He said many African businesses still face bureaucratic bottlenecks, inconsistent policies, and restrictive trade practices despite efforts to deepen economic cooperation across the continent. 


Rabiu further stressed that Africa’s growth and industrialisation would depend largely on stronger regional integration, improved infrastructure, harmonised policies, and coordinated investment frameworks capable of unlocking the continent’s economic potential. 

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