by Craig Page-Lee (@cpl_ignite) By now you’ve probably contemplated the desirability of the media prize north of our borders, packed your bags and applied for extra leave so that you can explore more of the continent while travelling on business. But there are many steps to take before the reality of such a journey is undertaken and such a wish realised.
There’s also the helplessness and frustrations experienced when applying for visas and the increased heart beat and shock to the nervous system when you have the first blast of multiple vaccinations required when travelling north.
Easier. NOT!
The goal of SADC, the Southern African Development Community, was (if such a vision still exists today) to further socio-economic cooperation and integration, as well as political security cooperation, among 15 southern African states. This heralded the introduction of a compendium of new acronyms, from COMESA and EAC to SADC and FTA, the latter (Free Trade Area) possibly being the panacea moment for the continent. One would think this would make movement between the respective participating countries somewhat easier. NOT!
I don’t know if leaving Nigeria out of these various bodies, establishments or entities (call them what you like) had any bearing that this is one of the most challenging embassies from which to obtain a long-term, multiple entry business visa but it sure does feel so!
And to think that Kenya was, and theoretically still is, “in the mix” is rather disappointing as the Kenyan embassy has recently instituted similar stringent visa application laws as those of Nigeria, these being effective from September 2014 — both are the most-frequented destinations for cross-border business development opportunities from SA.
Biometric data
The days of being able to send the visa-service agency off to the embassy to manage the process and arrive a few days to a week later with said travel documentation in place are long gone. In most instances, face-to-face interviews are necessary as biometric data is required and, to crown it all, embassies are generally located in Pretoria or the Sandton area of Johannesburg, which means that people living elsewhere in the country has to travel to Gauteng at great cost to process the application themselves.
I can’t really blame Nigeria and Kenya, not only in retaliation to the ridiculous cost imposed on their nationals for the application of a SA visa, nor for the dreadful ‘un-welcome welcome’ we all receive when entering, or returning to SA, but also because of SA supposedly having held the title for producing the most number of fake passports around, a point reaffirmed by a particular nation recently.
That said, when you’ve endured the challenges of travelling to Johannesburg from all other parts of SA, counted the cost of the lost opportunity of potential new business by not being available when called to close the deal, and having to reappear in person to collect your approved documentation, you know that the real adventure is just about to begin.
Experiences far outweigh the risks
The learnings from personal experiences, and others from those that have told many a late-night bar story around the world, all lean to the same caution and yet encouragement, in some perverse way, of not giving up as the experiences far outweigh the risks and frustrations that go with doing business in the rest of Africa.
One of the most important tips I’ve come to experience firsthand is knowing that, when you get back to the hotel room after too many local brews, brought on by an evening of ‘immersion’ with the local in-country teams, don’t down the whole bottle of complementary water you find in your hotel room — remember to leave one sip to brush your teeth with as you sure don’t want to be gargling a happy-morning tune through a mouth full of the often-polluted natural water source from the respective country that you are visiting.
Please remember to also keep your mouth closed and rather hum when in the shower, as imbibing the multi-flavoured and, I’m sure, pale-coloured waters will most definitely leave you more than parched after a few days of diarrhea. Make sure you always have those rehydration sachets and tabs for an unsettled stomach in your travel pack!
Not nearly as big and scary
What’s amusing is that South Africans think about other African cities in the way that Scandinavians think about Johannesburg — not in a good way, to say the least — but it’s not nearly as big and scary out there as you might think, though. The reality is that everyone who goes to cities such as Lagos wants a hero story to come back with and it all feeds into the stereotypes.
A colleague of mine who looks after business development of the continent recently spent an entire month, literally, walking the streets of Nigeria while conducting audits, and he returned in full health with all limbs intact and all possessions in place.
Another tip, should you also want to venture into the streets and experience the cities firsthand, is to leave your passport in the hotel safe as, when you’re out and about and the roadside ‘police’ inspectors get your valuable document in hand, you’re going nowhere until you’ve paid a handsome sum of money to get it back.
In closing, and to paraphrase from The Boston Consulting Group’s “Winning in Africa — From Trading Posts to Ecosystems”, Africa is the final frontier — the last sizable area of untapped growth in the global economy. To succeed, companies will need to bring the rest of Africa into the boardroom. Here’s to seeing it on your board-meeting agenda!
Craig Page-Lee (@cpl_ignite) is the group MD of Posterscope South Africa. He has over 21 years of working experience across the disciplines of architecture and retail design/brand communications and marketing management/advertising and media, across 11 pan-European and six pan-African regions. Craig’s monthly column on MarkLives, “Beyond Borders”, focuses on doing business in various African markets. Also remember to tune into his #eBizRetail slot on www.ebizradio.com.
— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every three work days. Sign up here!