How South Africa once denied me entry but allowed Europeans — BUA Chairman

Founder and Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has narrated how he was denied entry into South Africa after officials discovered his visa had expired by a day, an experience he says reflects broader challenges faced by Africans travelling within the continent.

Rabiu shared the incident on Thursday during his presentation titled “Africa at scale: Capital, policy, and the architecture of growth” at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.

He explained that the incident occurred in February 2025 while he was travelling from Lagos to Cape Town for the Mining Indaba.

According to him, he was stopped at immigration upon arrival despite initially believing his visa was still valid.

“I had a personal experience. Last year February, I was travelling to Cape Town for the mining Indaba. And as we landed. I left at night from Lagos to Cape Town. We arrived at 6 in the morning.

“As we arrived, we went to the immigration. I tendered my passport, and the immigration officer looked at it and was like, where is your visa, and I said, “My visa is there”. Unknown to me, my visa had expired the day before,” he said.

Rabiu said he and his team spent about four hours at the airport while efforts were made to determine whether they could be allowed entry.

However, he was eventually asked to return to Lagos.

He added, “Unfortunately, our crew did not check the visa to ensure the visa were valid. We were there for four hours, but at the end of the day, I had to turn back. I was turned back to Lagos.

He noted that during the waiting period, he observed several international flights arriving from Europe, with passengers reportedly allowed entry into South Africa without visas.

“But the issue is, while we were waiting to see whether we would be able to get access to the countries without the visas, there were like three international flights from Europe. All three flights were mostly Europeans.

“I was standing by the immigration desk, and every passenger on those flights went into Cape Town without any visa,” he said.

While acknowledging responsibility for the expired document, Rabiu expressed concern over what he described as unequal treatment between Africans and non-Africans at entry points.

“I do not have a problem with the fact that I was there without the visa and I was returned. I took full responsibility of that.

“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. This must change,” he said.

He added that weak cooperation among African countries continues to hinder free movement, business expansion, and economic integration across the continent.