Nigeria unveils partnership with Cote D'ivoire on tourism

Tourism stakehold­ers and entrepreneurs have continued to ap­plaud the new partnership between Nigeria and other African countries on account of the Memorandum of Un­derstanding (MOU) recently signed between Nigeria and Cote D’ivoire.
The collaboration between the two countries, signed on Nigeria’s behalf by the Direc­tor General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corpo­ration (NTDC), Sally Mbane­fo, is aimed at boosting and developing domestic tourism across the African region. The deal was sealed with the Cote d’Ivoire Tourism Board and coming after a similar one with the Gambia.

At the recent Cote D’Ivoire Economic Forum held in La­gos State, Mbanefo said: “Our country needs to improve its production capacity and must invest in labour intensive sec­tors like tourism, agriculture and manufacturing. It is the only way to create jobs for the small and medium scale entre­preneurs, youth and women.
“We have also been hold­ing talks with Ghana’s Tour­ism Board as well as the South African Tourism Board. Two years ago, we signed an MOU with the Gambian Tourism Board. Immediately we signed the MOU, the first batch of my staff were approved for training and best practice ex­change. We will not stop un­til we achieve a West African Tourism Brand, so that when a tourist begins his trip in one African country, he can con­clude it in Nigeria to get a ho­listic approach to tourism in West African.
Speaking further, she add­ed: “We want to encourage other African countries that have best practices for cocoa production, textile and fash­ion industries to collaborate with Nigeria to create jobs for youth. If our manufacturing and agriculture industries are reawakened, tourism would have contributed to job cre­ation through such synergies with Cote D’Ivoire and other African countries where we can emulate their industry best practices.”
While noting that emphasis must be hinged on encourag­ing mechanised farming and industrialisation, she said the NTDC has been collaborating with Cote D’Ivoire Tourism Board for the past three years.
“They have been coming to the Corporation for collabo­ration between the two coun­tries, the MOU signed to­day will unite us together and help to achieve the ECOWAS Tourism Brand Regional Alli­ance which NTDC has been working on with other African countries. The NTDC DG says it is a value chain that touches every sector in the economy, for example tourism is leaving your house to seek business, leisure, sports, cultural or re­ligious adventure. The vehi­cle you use is either a car, bus, plane or train that is benefit­ting the manufacturing sector, fuelling it benefits the oil and gas sector and going to a buk­ka or restaurant to eat, benefits the agricultural sector.
“I’m happy associations like Manufacturers Associations of Nigeria (MAN) whom I worked very closely with when I was in Lafarge Cement are here. The fashion industry is also a great opportunity to em­power youth with skilled la­bour and grow small and me­dium scale enterprises.”