I came into Nigeria from the United States, and needed to travel to Libreville, Gabon, for a meeting. When they sent the ticket from Libreville, I was to fly into France, and then back into Africa (Gabon). While in France, I was to spend 6 hours. When I finally got to Gabon, I asked the host, “How can we fix this problem?”
The response was revealing: we do not have a lot of traffic to run an international airline, and it would not be a good business to do so. But if we all see this continent as a union of nations, smaller countries like Gabon would be supported by leveraging on other big ones. That brought me to the importance of Ethiopian Airlines which seems to have the magic wand of making money doing aviation this in Africa. Simply, you can just outsource everything to Ethiopian Airlines instead of Air France, and over time, connecting to Gabon from West Africa could technically be easier.
But while you are thinking of aviation, I take you to sending and receiving money within Africa. If you live in Nigeria, run a business and want people in Burundi, Tanzania and Gambia to pay you directly, into your bank, crypto wallet or fintech wallet, what are your options? Which bank or fintech solution can help?
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I am not conceding that sending from Kenya, Ghana and South Africa to Nigeria is easier, but let us leave those tier-1 countries out, and focus on these largely smaller nations which could be huge sources of opportunities, if we can find ways to connect them to Nigeria.
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Very insightful sir.