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Global Mobility: A Growth Catalyst for Francophone Founders

Romain Ligault

Romain Ligault

Romain Ligault is a Private Client Advisor at Henley & Partners West Africa.

In Francophone Africa’s vibrant tech scene, a founder in Lomé can raise pre-seed capital and launch in Abidjan within weeks. But meeting investors in Paris or scaling into Dubai? That might still take months of waiting for visa approvals and regulatory clearances. For Africa’s rising entrepreneurs, global mobility has become a growth bottleneck — and increasingly, a solvable one, thanks to investment migration programs.

Cross-border mobility has quietly become one of the most persistent — and underestimated — constraints on African scale-ups. And in today’s hyperconnected economy, it’s more than just a hassle — it’s a growth ceiling. For an increasing number of African entrepreneurs, the answer lies in building a strategic ‘mobility stack’ — a portfolio of alternative residence rights and, where necessary, additional citizenships — designed to unlock global access and remove barriers that constrain growth.

Passports from many Francophone African nations offer limited visa-free access to the world: Côte d’Ivoire’s, for instance, enables to just 59 countries without a prior visa, and Togo’s just 60, compared to 193 for a Singaporean passport holder. A Greece Golden Visa enables visa-free access to 60 destinations too, but these include all Europe’s Schengen Area countries. For investors in mobility-strapped African countries, each delayed embassy appointment postpones market entry, disrupts hiring timelines, and adds friction to scaling plans.

Rethinking Mobility

For an emerging generation of founders across Africa, global mobility is recognized as a strategic operating tool. A well-designed portfolio of residence rights and, if required, supplementary citizenships, enables entrepreneurs to operate internationally with greater flexibility. It allows them to domicile intellectual property in predictable legal environments, raise capital under familiar securities law, bank and transact in stronger currencies, and travel between jurisdictions with ease. Critically, it also means they can do all of this while keeping their operational headquarters — and long-term impact — firmly rooted in Africa.

African businessman reading business newspaper while drinking coffee in private plane

What Is a Mobility Stack?

Borrowing from software architecture terminology, the term ‘mobility stack’ describes the strategic layering of multiple residence rights and citizenships, each offering different advantages. Rather than relying on a single golden visa or passport, an investor might combine a Schengen-compatible residence permit, such as those offered by Greece and Portugal, to access European markets, a Gulf-region residence such as the UAE’s for tax efficiency and regional operations, and a citizenship such as Türkiye’s, that enables business-friendly travel to key destinations in Asia, and the Middle East. Additional jurisdictions might be selected for family lifestyle, education, or succession planning benefits.

Together, these investment migration programs from a modular platform that can be adapted according to the company’s growth trajectory and operating needs. Like a well-integrated tech system, it is interoperable by design. Residence rights and citizenships work smoothly together to help founders grow their companies globally and meet different strategic goals without compromising on compliance or agility.

Succession Planning: A Strategic Advantage

Global mobility tools do more than enable international travel. Residence and citizenship programs frequently require or encourage applicants to put in place foundational elements of corporate and family governance. Would-be investors may need to define asset-holding structures, nominate legal guardians for minor children, and establish family constitutions to manage voting rights and future distributions.

Moreover, because alternative residence typically grants access to common-law legal systems, it becomes easier to set up trusts, foundations, and special-purpose vehicles. In this way, the mobility stack doubles up as a growth enabler and a succession planning toolkit — tested and operational well before it is ever needed.

Two Francophone Founder Journeys

To illustrate the practical application of mobility planning, consider two contrasting examples from Francophone West Africa.

The first involves two Nigerian co-founders of a fast-growing e-commerce platform now active in four African markets. While awaiting the birth of their second child, as they prepared to expand through a pan-African insurance partnership they secured Greek Golden Visas via a EUR 400,000 residential real estate acquisition outside Athens. This gave them unrestricted access to Europe’s Schengen Area for business meetings and future settlement options for their family in Europe, with eligibility to apply for citizenship after seven years, by which time their children would be of school-going age. Simultaneously, they registered a Mauritian holding company and obtained 10-year residence via the Mauritius Residence by Investment Program, aligning their operations with a stable territorial tax regime and the island nation’s growing network of double tax treaties. As a result, they can now govern their group seamlessly across West Africa, Europe, and the Indian Ocean rim.

The second case involves a Senegalese engineer-turned-entrepreneur whose cloud-based logistics platform supports francophone exporters trading with China and the Middle East. In anticipation of a Series A funding round, he invested in a residential property in Dubai valued at AED 2 million, qualifying for the UAE’s 10-year Golden Visa and the benefits of a 0–9% corporate tax regime within one of its free zones. He then obtained Grenadian citizenship for his family of four by contributing USD 235,000 to the country’s National Transformation Fund, enhancing his agility by enabling him to travel to tech hubs in China, Singapore, the UK, and Europe’s Schengen Area without having to acquire a visa in advance. Today, while his headquarters remain in Dakar, he is able to move capital, product, and himself efficiently between Beijing, Paris, and Dubai.

Why Timing Matters

The most effective global mobility strategies are put in place early — ideally well before institutional funding rounds begin. By the time a company reaches Series A, outside investors are scrutinizing every aspect of its risk profile, including founder availability, regulatory exposure, and operational access to core markets.

Founders and key executives who already hold the relevant long-term residence rights or alternative citizenships can travel on short notice to meet investors, regulators, or banking partners, without logistical delays. Those who wait often find themselves scrambling for last-minute visa appointments just when speed and confidence matter most.

Mobility rights acquired through investment migration should be treated like any other governance item: tracked annually, monitored for changes in program costs or eligibility requirements, and renewed with the same discipline applied to cybersecurity or foreign exchange exposure. In today’s fast-moving geopolitical and regulatory landscape, programs can be amended, suspended, or even closed with little notice. Investors and founders must therefore stay abreast of developments in the investment migration space and anticipate potential changes. Forward planning is essential: securing alternative residence or citizenship options before key programs are withdrawn can ensure strategic flexibility when it’s needed most.

Mobility Capital Is the Next Competitive Edge

For Francophone Africa’s emerging tech innovators, having additional residences and/or citizenships is no longer a back-up plan — it is a vital asset class. It multiplies enterprise value, accelerates go-to-market efforts, safeguards family legacies, and unlocks future funding options.

The next unicorns born in Lomé, Abidjan, and Dakar will still be proudly African. But they will scale on global terms — with mobility stacks that allow them access to Lisbon, Dubai, St. George’s, and London. The lesson is clear: build early, maintain actively, and let global mobility turn passport power into product velocity.

Note: Visa-free, visa-on-arrival, and eTA rules can be updated, amended, or adjusted at any time due to changes in diplomatic, security, health, migration, or reciprocal policies.

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Henley & Partners assists international clients in obtaining residence and citizenship under the respective programs. Contact us to arrange an initial private consultation.

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