Former Nigerian President H.E. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo used his opening remarks at the first African Air Transport Convention and Expo in Lomé, Togo, to call for a more disciplined implementation of Africa’s aviation, trade and mobility commitments, warning that the continent cannot continue to rely on declarations without translating them into action.
Addressing heads of state and government, ministers, AFCAC, African Union representatives, AfCFTA stakeholders, AUDA-NEPAD, UNECA, development finance institutions, industry leaders and partners, Obasanjo noted the inaugural convention as a gathering concerned with more than aviation. In his view, air transport has become one of the clearest tests of whether Africa is serious about integration.
For many years, he noted, Africa has created institutions, signed treaties, launched frameworks and adopted declarations. Those efforts remain necessary, but he highlighted that they are no longer sufficient. Integration now has to be felt in practical ways, including lower travel costs, freer movement of goods, easier business procedures, stronger tourism flows and the ability of Africans to meet, trade, invest and build across the continent.
If Africans cannot travel easily within Africa, the African Continental Free Trade Area will remain limited. If African airlines cannot connect the continent’s markets, businesses will remain fragmented. If borders remain difficult to cross, tourism will fall short of its potential. If aviation remains unsafe, overtaxed, underfinanced and poorly coordinated, the promise of Agenda 2063 will be delayed.
Drawing on his experience in Nigeria, Obasanjo said aviation regulation and institutional credibility had to be strengthened because safety, regulation and commercial discipline are not technical details alone.
He placed aviation within the wider implementation challenge facing the AfCFTA. Trade, he said, is not advanced by speeches, but through infrastructure, logistics, standards, payments, borders and transport. The AfCFTA remains one of Africa’s most practical tools for moving from small, fragmented markets towards a continental economy, but it depends on the systems that allow people, goods and services to move efficiently.
Obasanjo also connected aviation to culture and tourism, describing Africa’s identity as an economic resource. The continent’s heritage, creativity, festivals, landscapes, cities and people form part of its strength, but tourism cannot expand where air access is costly, irregular or difficult.
Mobility was another central theme. African borders, he said, should become bridges rather than barriers. The free movement of people should not be treated as a luxury, but as the human face of integration. He also linked peace, governance, infrastructure and connectivity, stressing that corridors cannot be built amid conflict, aviation finance cannot be secured without credible institutions and trade cannot expand where trust is absent.
Obasanjo set out six priorities for African aviation:
The first is the full implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market. He cautioned against treating SAATM as a ceremonial commitment and said it must become operational through bilateral air services agreements, route approvals, competition rules, consumer protection systems and the treatment of African airlines.
The second is the need to lower the cost of air travel in Africa. Taxes, charges and fees that make tickets unaffordable should not be viewed as revenue strategies, he argued, but as barriers to growth. A passenger who cannot afford to fly generates no tax, no trade, no tourism and no opportunity. Governments, he said, should reconsider the overall cost burden placed on African aviation.
The third is to connect aviation directly to AfCFTA implementation. Every trade corridor should have an air connectivity plan. Every tourism strategy should include an air access plan. Every regional value chain should ask how people, goods and services can move more quickly, cheaply and reliably.
The fourth, he called for serious financing for aviation infrastructure. Airports, air navigation systems, cargo terminals, maintenance facilities, digital border systems and climate-resilient infrastructure all require long-term capital. Development finance institutions and technical partners, he said, must work with African governments to prepare bankable projects rather than endless wish lists.
The fifth, focused on facilitation, visa restrictions, slow border procedures and weak facilitation systems undermine the integration Africa claims to support. Obasanjo said API, PNR, digital identity, risk-based security and Annex 9-compliant facilitation should become standard across the continent.
The sixth placed responsibility on airlines themselves. Governments may open the skies, but airlines must use those skies responsibly. Obasanjo called on African carriers to cooperate more, compete fairly, improve reliability, strengthen governance and build partnerships that serve African consumers.
The former Nigerian President said Africa already has the tools required to act. These include SAATM, AfCFTA, AU Agenda 2063, regional economic communities, AFCAC, AUDA-NEPAD, financial institutions, technical partners, entrepreneurs and young people ready to move, trade and create. The question is whether the continent has the discipline to implement them.
He closed by describing the Africa that should now be delivered: one where a young entrepreneur in Lagos can reach Lomé, Nairobi, Kigali, Accra, Cairo or Johannesburg without unnecessary difficulty; where goods move faster than excuses; where tourism is not constrained by poor connectivity; and where aviation serves trade, culture, peace and prosperity.
