Lagos — Nigerian technology entrepreneur and Co-founder of AFARI, Ade Omotoyinbo, has decried the persistent lack of connectivity within Africa’s aviation and travel ecosystem, describing it as a failure of design rather than distance.
Omotoyinbo made the remarks in a statement highlighting what he called one of Africa’s biggest development contradictions: that it is often easier for travelers to fly from Lagos to London than from Lagos to Luanda, despite both cities being on the same continent.
According to him, the challenge is not geographical but systemic, pointing to weak infrastructure, restrictive policies, fragmented markets and underdeveloped travel networks as the main barriers to seamless movement across African borders.
“This is Africa’s story in one sentence,” Omotoyinbo said. “The blueprint exists, but the building isn’t complete.”
He referenced the African Union’s long-term development framework, Agenda 2063, and the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), which were designed to foster regional integration through affordable air travel, open skies policies and improved inter-country connectivity.
However, Omotoyinbo noted that despite these frameworks being in place for years, progress has remained slow, with only about nine per cent of air travel in Africa occurring within the continent.
He described the situation as unsustainable for a continent seeking economic integration, growth in trade, and cultural exchange, adding that Africa’s dependence on routing flights through Europe or the Middle East to move between African countries is both costly and counterproductive.
While acknowledging the role of government and continental bodies in implementing policy reforms, Omotoyinbo stressed that innovation must complement policy execution if Africa is to achieve meaningful progress.
“Policy is the what. Innovation is the how,” he said.
He argued that Africa’s future development would not be driven solely by governments and regulators, but increasingly by entrepreneurs, technologists and business leaders willing to build practical solutions to structural problems.
“The responsibility now rests with us — the founders, the builders, the doers,” he stated.
Omotoyinbo disclosed that his company, AFARI, is working to address some of the challenges in Africa’s travel ecosystem through technology. AFARI, an AI-powered corporate travel and expense management platform, aims to build a unified digital layer to manage travel logistics and expenses across African markets in a seamless and intelligent manner.
He said the platform is designed to simplify movement for businesses operating across borders, reduce operational barriers, and enable African companies to function as easily across countries as multinational firms do in more integrated regions of the world.
“With AFARI, we are building what policy envisioned,” he said. “A system that makes movement seamless and brings us closer to the Africa we want.”
Omotoyinbo concluded by urging African innovators and investors to stop waiting for structural change to come solely from the top, and instead take ownership of building the systems the continent needs.
“The blueprint exists,” he said. “Now it’s time to build.”