Ikechi Uko: Tourism Can Drive Nigeria’s Economic Growth

•Tourism •Arts&Culture

As Nigeria seeks new engines of growth, the Founder of Akwaaba African Travel Market, Ikechi Uko, says tourism offers a powerful opportunity to create jobs, attract investment, earn foreign exchange and showcase the country’s rich cultural heritage to the world writes Charles Ajunwa 

As Nigeria searches for new drivers of economic growth beyond oil, tourism offers one of the country’s most significant opportunities to create jobs, attract investment, strengthen local businesses and generate foreign exchange. With its rich cultural heritage, festivals, cuisine, music, arts, beaches and diverse destinations, Nigeria has the assets to build a competitive tourism economy that can benefit communities and businesses across the country.

Tourism’s economic value extends far beyond hotels and airlines. A vibrant tourism industry creates demand for transportation, restaurants, entertainment, retail, event management, travel agencies, hospitality services and creative enterprises. It also provides opportunities for young people while enabling states and communities to turn cultural and historical assets into sustainable sources of income. For Nigeria, developing these linkages could make tourism an important component of broader economic diversification.

The sector can also help Nigeria project its identity and improve its international image. Visitors who experience the country’s food, music, culture, hospitality and heritage can become informal ambassadors for Nigeria. This makes tourism not only an economic activity but also an instrument of soft power. The challenge, however, is to package Nigeria’s diverse attractions into experiences that can compete effectively for travellers within Africa and globally.

It is this opportunity that tourism entrepreneur and Founder of Akwaaba African Travel Market, Ikechi Uko, has pursued for more than two decades. Through the travel market, Uko has sought to create an African platform that promotes tourism products, connects industry players and demonstrates the commercial value of African culture and experiences.

Speaking on the 22nd edition of Akwaaba, medical tourism, youth development and the contributions of Cross River and Ekiti states, he also offered his vision of a Nigeria that preserves its culture while remaining contemporary and globally competitive.

Building an African Tourism Platform

Asked how he was able to host the 22nd edition of Akwaaba African Travel Market Expo, Uko said the original vision of the platform remained the driving force behind its growth.

“First of all, how the vision started is what still drives us. I went to World Travel Market (WTM), I saw the problems Africans have in marketing themselves in Europe. So, when we decided to do Akwaaba, we decided to do something that would be purely African. Everybody said it wasn’t going to work. First, Africans don’t travel within Africa. Secondly, your concept, if you don’t copy what they do in Europe, you’ll fail. But today, we could look back and see that the big people are copying us.

“When we did Beauty Queen, everybody brought Beauty Queen the next year. We started food. Everyone that has attempted food failed. Because the culture of the Nigerian or the African is different. Most Europeans will deal in a corporate way. So, they do mainly meetings and they will book appointments. So, when you go for a travel show, there are prearranged meetings.

“There are some people who pulled out of Akwaaba that I don’t organise meetings for them with everybody. I come from a country where we have African time. Where people can be stuck in traffic and they won’t meet those meetings. Who will be held responsible when the meeting doesn’t hold? They hold me responsible. So, from the beginning, I said no. I adapted to the Nigerian and African culture. So, we don’t do prearranged meetings. We are probably the only ones that don’t do it. But most people are beginning to copy.

“So, we wanted something authentic, something African, something experiential. And that’s what we are doing. That experience has to be flavoured differently every year. We just want to create an African product.

“The other thing that helps us, most people don’t want to come to Nigeria. They have issues with Nigeria as a country. So, we have to create compelling reasons to make people who wouldn’t want to come to Nigeria come to Akwaaba, and we have been very successful with that. So, each year you have to do new things and you can see how we dress tells part of the story because we are communicating to people’s senses, perceptions. So, that’s the story behind it.”

Financing the Tourism Vision

On the challenges he had encountered over the past 22 years and how they were addressed, Uko identified financing as a major obstacle.

“The first challenge we know is money. I pay for this hall at Eko Hotels and it is not cheap.

“Most countries who support things like this, the government pays. If I’m doing events in Ghana, I don’t pay for hall. I can pay for other things. Either the government of Ghana pays for my hall or the hotel offers hall. So many results have come to me pledging to host the next Weizo. Now, people want to host. But in Nigeria, you’ve seen the story yourself. So, everybody will see those things and it defeats you.

“We are using the most expensive venue in this country. When we started, the partners gave us standards and we have kept to those standards. We are the first African organisation to be admitted into the International Federation for Travel Expo. And not just the high money we had to pay to join and they gave you and must stick it up and that helped me.

“So, the biggest challenge we have had in the beginning nobody believed something like this. They said, ‘Oh, it’s only a white man that can do it.’ We told them we have to go to London to sell Nigeria. They said that is not possible. How will Calabar Carnival carry all these people to London? Where will they get visa? And they’ve been able to market their state to so many people. A lot of Kenyans are coming for the carnival because they met them at Akwaaba.

“So, we needed to create those platforms. Convince Nigerians, West Africans, and Africans was the second problem. So, and one way or the other, we skilfully scaled through those challenges.”

Medical Tourism Opportunity

Uko said medical tourism became part of Akwaaba’s agenda after international hospitals approached him about the Nigerian market.

“Medical tourism came, would I say, by accident. Dubai approached me that they want to join Akwaaba. They are not an African country. Well, I said yes. So, Dubai was coming with a lot of people. And two of those people who come from Dubai were hospitals, Royal Hospital and American Hospital.

“So, they invited me. I was at Arabian Travel Market and we had a meeting. They told me, you see, Nigerians know the hotels. They don’t know the hospitals. They will do very well with Nigerian clients. Could you create a pavilion for medical tourism? So, people will come looking for us and we want to be there with other hospitals. So, good idea. I came and we floated it.

“Turkey and Ghana came. We now found out that Nigerians were not there. So, we are happy that the two of the best hospitals in Nigeria have signed up a partnership with us.

“So, next year, it won’t just be Turkey, India, Ghana. You now have Nigerians. Because I explained to them, the travel consultant has access to high-network individuals more than hospitals. So, all he needs to do is tell his clients a second opinion. And they will buy the ticket, provide everything and there are cheaper hotels in Nigeria with world-class professionals.

“So, these two people quickly caught the vision. We are hoping that next year, more hospitals, world-class hospitals will see that there is no need for us to spend two billion dollars a year going abroad to treat headaches that can be treated here.”

Selling Nigeria Through Soft Power

Asked what he offered foreigners who attended the year’s Akwaaba, Uko said the event deliberately positioned itself as a positive Nigerian brand.

“We position ourselves as a Nigerian brand.

“We like to say we are the biggest Nigerian brand that never advertises. That we are known everywhere there is travel business in the world and we’ve never run an advert on CNN. So, we position ourselves as a positive Nigerian brand.

“When we go out of Nigeria to participate in travel fairs, we say we are the Jollof and Afrobeat stand. So, if we have brought them to Nigeria, what do you think we should give them? Jollof and Afrobeat. As part of the itinerary, we will take them around Lagos, the Afrobeat capital of the world, and serve Jollof rice. What we are trying to do is communicate to people with soft power.

“One man told me, ‘No, I love Nigeria. I’ll be coming back again’. But before, they were afraid to come. So, we brought them here and we are giving them the experience.”

Asked about the places visitors were taken to, he added: “We gave them cultural experience at JK Randle, Nike Gallery and took them to one of the private beaches where we had a party.”