African Union Social Secretariat to Attend ATCEE in Nigeria

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Social Secretariat of the African Union (AU) has confirmed it would attend the maiden edition of the Africa Tourism and Creative Economy Expo (AFCEE) scheduled for Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja, between November 24-25.

The Chairman Local Organising Committee (LOC) Denja Abdullahi, disclosed this while speaking on the forthcoming expo with the theme: ‘Optimising Africa’s Comparative and Competitive Advantage for Accelerated Trade and Economic Growth’.

He said the AU organ, based in Addis Ababa has also promised to galvanise other relevant multilateral agencies across the continent to attend and contribute the business of the expo.

The federal government had through the Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy fully endorsed the project with the inauguration of the LOC on November 5 by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Yawale Muktar.

He added that before the inauguration the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, had personally signed letters to the 36 states of the federation, MDAs, foreign missions and other stakeholders to support the expo.

Abdullahi said the expo has 10 overarching objectives, including getting African countries to commit to significant increase in their tourism and creative economy annual budgetary allocation, institute a peer review mechanism for African countries to compare notes multilaterally on emerging tourism and creative industry trends within the precinct of mutual profit, and to bring African countries and private sector together to actualise the principles and objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

He noted that after the exhibitions and investment workshops, the committee will unveil an auditable, evidence-based tracking system known as “Cultourmetre” that will be used to measure online and real-time advancements achieved in the tourism and creative economy sector in Africa country by country.

About 109 African countries and all 36 states of the federation, including the FCT have indicted willingness to participate in the expo.