BUA Chairman criticises South Africa after they denied him entry over expired visa but allowed Europeans without visas

Friday, May 15, 2026 - The founder and Chief Executive Officer of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has revealed how he was denied entry into South Africa after his visa expired just a day before his arrival, while European travellers were reportedly allowed into the country without visas.

Rabiu shared the experience on Thursday at the ongoing Africa CEO Forum holding in Kigali, Rwanda.

 The businessman narrated that the incident occurred in February 2025 when he travelled from Lagos to Cape Town for the Mining Indaba, only to be turned back at immigration after officials discovered his visa had expired.

According to him, the oversight left him stranded for hours at the airport before he was eventually returned to Lagos.

He alleged that while he and his team were delayed over visa issues, passengers arriving on several flights from Europe were cleared into South Africa without visas.

“I had a personal experience. Last year, in 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,” he said.

“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.

“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.

“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 there by the immigration desk, and every passenger on those three flights went into Cape Town without any visa.”

The businessman said he understood why he was turned back, but allowing foreigners from other continents to enter South Africa without visas while preventing Africans from entering does not sit well with him.

He said, “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.”

The BUA Chairman expressed that the lack of cooperation among African countries does not affect the movement of Africans alone, stressing that it also frustrates business expansion from one country to another on the continent.

“At BUA Group, as we expanded our regional investment, we actively sought to supply several African markets under the AfCFTA framework,” the businessman said.

“While some countries embraced the spirit of agreement, others were less supportive in practice, with administrative barriers, legacy import structures limiting our ability to participate fully in regional trade.

“So really, AfCFTA is not working as it should. Because I had a personal experience in one of the countries that we tried to penetrate, we were actually frustrated.”