Motherland beckons to boost Nigeria’s economy through tourism

As part of the ongoing effort to revive Nigeria’s economy and entrench it on the part of sustainable growth, Motherland Beckons has launched a new tourism and creative art initiative tagged Diaspora Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (DNERGP).

Unveiled on Worker’s Day at a colourful event held at the La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort, Lekki, Lagos, the blueprint was jointly unfolded by the Founder of Motherland Beckons, Otunba Wanle Akinboboye and the Director General of Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), Dr. Ferdinand Anikwe. The session was also witnessed by stakeholders in the tourism industry, as well tourists and members of the community, who marked this year’s May Day at the resort.

Speaking at the launch, Akinboboye, who is also the President of La Campaign Tropicana Beach Resort informed that the newly conceived programme is a tourism initiative, which aims at reviving the ailing Nigerian economy, is in line with in the recently launched Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (2017-2020-ERGP) of the federal government.

“Tourism is the surest and quickest way to the economic growth of Nigeria hence the introduction of DNERGP, which has the potential for attracting both domestic and foreign inflow into the country, thereby growing the tourism industry. We believe the much neglected tourism sector is the lowest hanging fruit that should be plucked to quickly reverse the prevailing economic downturn,” he said.

The initiative, which covers tours and business, offers Nigerians in Diaspora and their friends an opportunity to contribute their own quota by visiting Nigeria for three days and two nights with a payment of $1000 apiece. This comes with a first class entertainment in form of dance, drama, poetry, authentic African music, cuisines and night clubbing.

As part of the project, six tourism destinations (Abuja, Cross River, Kano/Kaduna, Enugu and South West) have been created for the tours.

“Tourists are most likely to spend between two to four weeks, thereby resulting into additional expenditure of about $4,000 on travels, family and sundry expenses. A foremost tour operator in Nigeria has been appointed to superintend this project and our expectation for the first operational year is one million Nigerians and their one million friends, with a corresponding $2 billion injection into the Nigerian economy,” he said.

Apart from the leisure and entertainment package, there is also the business plan where Diaspora Nigerians, who are interested in doing business at home, can become distributors and part owners in companies and businesses with good rate of returns on investment under the Motherland Beckons/MUSIAD agreement signed in December 2016.

Already, Motherland Beckons has concluded plans to create a Diaspora Industrial Zone (DIZ) as the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyey Enitan Babatunde Ogunwusi Ojaja II, has donated 2,000 hectares of industrial land for this purpose in his domain.

In his remarks, Anikwe commended Akinboboye for his immensurable contributions to tourism, culture and creative arts in Nigeria and in Africa. He described the initiative as a quiet revolution and a concerted effort at proffering a simple solution to the economic recession in Nigeria.

“As CBAAC, we pledged to work assiduously towards the success of this private sector led initiative, which presents a win-win situation for the Diaspora and the people of Nigeria,” he said.