Lomé – Togo has announced the removal of visa requirements for all African citizens, a decision that came directly off the back of a speech delivered by Nigeria’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, at the Biashara Africa 2026 forum in Lomé on 18 May 2026.
The third edition of the Biashara Africa Business Forum brought together policymakers, private sector leaders, innovators, small and medium enterprises and development partners to advance the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
En marge des travaux de la troisième édition du forum d’affaires Biashara Africa ouverts ce 18 mai 2026 à Lomé, le Président du Conseil, SEM @FEGnassingbe, a reçu la ministre nigériane de l’Industrie, du commerce et de l’investissement, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, prochaine présidente du… pic.twitter.com/suXjQL71se
— Présidence du Conseil du Togo (@presidencecstg) May 19, 2026
The forum was opened by Togo’s Minister of Economy and Strategic Monitoring, Badanam Patoki, and Dr Oduwole, who serves as the incoming Chair of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers. Both ministers spoke about the need to translate the promise of the AfCFTA into tangible economic opportunities for Africans.
Dr Oduwole used her opening remarks to speak candidly about the travel barriers African citizens still face when moving across the continent, drawing from a troubling experience she witnessed upon landing in Lomé the night before.
Two ECOWAS passport holders from Nigeria and Ghana, who also held European passports and had travelled from Europe, were denied entry into Togo using their national ECOWAS passports. They were instead issued 24-hour visas on their foreign passports.
“One of them, an investor in the financial services sector with businesses in Nigeria and Ghana said to me that he would not consider investing here. We had not yet left the airport and his investment decision was already concluded,” Dr Oduwole told the gathering.
She was direct about where the problem lies. “This is not a Togo problem. I led it of doing business in Nigeria for 9 years and these problems persist across the continent. The situation where a European would have to be asked to process a visa on an African passport in a European country within the EU would never occur in Europe.”
Togo’s President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé responded by announcing the scrapping of all visa requirements for African citizens. Dr Oduwole called the move “a big win for regional integration and a strong signal of the Africa we are building, one that is more connected, more competitive, and more open for business.”
Addressing delegates, Dr Oduwole said Africa’s economic future cannot be built at the margins of global trade while the continent continues to neglect trade within its own borders.
“Africa cannot trade at the margins of the global economy while neglecting trade within its own borders. We must build regional value chains, support African production, and unlock the immense power of our single market of over 1.4 billion people. There is literally no time to waste,” she said.
She noted that the free movement of people had been raised consistently at all levels of the private sector, including by leading investors such as Aliko Dangote and Dr Abdi Samad Rabiu. “To trade together, we must first welcome one another,” she said.
Dr Oduwole said the forum was expected to produce practical, business-driven recommendations to accelerate AFCFTA implementation, stronger partnerships between governments, financiers and the private sector, and concrete solutions to persistent barriers covering logistics, standards and access to finance.
The AFCFTA Council of Ministers is set to meet in Abuja during the last week of June 2026. On the sidelines of the forum, Dr Oduwole also held a bilateral meeting with President Gnassingbé.
