Intellectual property lawyer, former Secretary General of Performing Musicians Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN), tourism management expert and the Managing Director/ CEO Afrocultour Limited, Chuks Akamadu, shares perspectives with the media on the Africa Tourism and Creative Economy Expo (AFTCREE) scheduled for Abuja in November. Olawale Ajimotokanpresents the excerpts

Question You have an event coming up in November this year tagged “Africa Tourism and Creative Economy Expo 2025”, can you tell us more about the event? 

Well, the Africa Tourism and Creative Economy Expo (AFTCREE ) is an Afrocultour initiative conceived to complement the various commendable public sector initiatives across Africa; which interestingly is in furtherance of our commitment to mainstreaming culture and tourism into the economies of African States, for purposes of inclusive continental development and improved intra-continental trade. It is regrettable that in spite of Africa’s remarkable supply of primary commodities such as agricultural products, minerals and raw materials, she contributes less than three percent to global trade at present. This is as miserable as it is lamentable. On the home front, the volume of intra-continental trade also leaves much to be desired. This sad reality is clearly beneath us and, quite curiously, does not reflect the abundance of resources – human and natural available on our shores. It was for this and more that the emergence of Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in 2018 was widely embraced by Africans with lavish excitement. The legitimate expectation of Africans is that with the coming of AfCFTA, fresh trade frontiers would be opened, existing ones strengthened and the economies of African nations bolstered. While the AfCFTA initiative remains, in my view, a commendable trade masterstroke, it has become imperative for indigenous African non-governmental institutions and organizations to co-own AfCFTA in their enlightened business interests and give full expression to its laudable objectives, by running with the vision for mutual gain and shared prosperity on the continent. That is why the Expo aims, among other things, to urge African countries to commit to significant increase in their tourism and creative economy annual budgetary allocations, inaugurate “Agenda 2030”, which would aspire to increase Africa’s contribution to global trade from less than three percent to at least ten percent by the year 2030, through mainstreaming tourism and entertainment into the service industry, institute a peer review mechanism for African countries to compare notes bilaterally and multilaterally on emerging tourism and creative industry trends within the precincts of mutual profit. Other objectives of the Expo include: fostering a culture of mutually-supportive sectoral collaboration amongst African countries and to highlight investment opportunities in the tourism and creative industries and attract investments to the value-chains. Thankfully, this is in sync with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Federal Government and the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy under the transformational watch of Barr. Hannatu Musawa which is the Official Host Ministry of the Expo is solidly behind it. 

How can Africa’s comparative and competitive advantage given its natural heritage in the tourism sector be used for accelerated trade and economic growth on the continent?

Perhaps you should have started by asking: does Africa know that she has comparative and competitive advantage in the global tourism ecosystem? I ask because the current posture of the continent which ironically is the largest free trade area in the world does not suggest that she is aware of such advantage. Rather more primarily and quite unfortunately, too, a majority of African states have yet to even appreciate tourism as a major tool for economic diversification, growth and development.  

Can you elaborate on this, please?

What I’m simply saying is that we can only discuss how Africa can take due advantage of her unique natural heritage to compete favourably if and when we have conquered the notion of tourism as being resident in the realm of leisure, and now do see it rightly as a major economic frontier that is capable of relocating our continent’s economy from the cesspit of dependency to sustainable shared prosperity. However, Africa is blessed with numerous heritage sites with huge touristic value that can be deployed for the attainment of her accelerated trade and economic aspirations. From the Namibian Spitzkoppe to Rwanda’s Mountain of Gorrilas, Morocco’s Djemaa el Fna and Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. We also have the Osun sacred groove in Nigeria, the Sossusvlei Dunes in Namibia, South Africa’s Table Mountains and the incredible all-year round animal migration from Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Reserve to Kenya’s Masai Mara. These are all choice tourist destinations with distinctive features that have largely remained Africa’s sleeping cash-cows over the decades. And it is for this reason and more that the forthcoming Expo is designed to be a wake-up call on Africa and her peoples. We cannot be blessed and living in midst of plenty yet hungry and still retain our status as the poorest region on the face of the planet.  

Nigeria largely depends on oil revenue for its survival, how can culture and tourism improve the nation’s foreign exchange earnings? 

This is one of the several issues my book (Harnessing Cultour for Economic Growth) addressed extensively. It is also why Afrocultour’s slogan is “Mainstreaming Culture and Tourism into African Economies”.With the exception of agriculture, the culture-tourism sector which I prefer to call the “cultour sector”, apart from being the largest employer of labour in the country is Nigeria’s low-hanging fruit in terms of economic diversification. Therefore, improving Nigeria’s foreign exchange earning can only happen if and when government elects to recognize “cultour” as a desirable economic path, by way of policy redirection, massive investment in cultour infrastructure and insisting on trained cultural and tourism experts running the various institutions that are saddled with the sector’s policy implementation. There is a reason why the ministry of justice is headed by a lawyer and ministry of health led by a health professional. Have you asked why a non-academic does not superintend National Universities Commission as executive secretary? And do you think that the government of United Arab Emirates was out of her mind when she merged her ministry of economy with tourism recently? Look, it’s our wrong perception of tourism that has made it possible for Nigeria to be operating an obsolete tourism policy that dates back to 1988. It is for same reason also that the Nigerian Tourism Development Master Plan of 2005 hasn’t been reviewed till date. So, for us to earn forex from our vast cultour resources, we have to first view it as business, then treat it as such; which entails rethinking the entire sector, carrying out a SWOT analysis, needs assessment and investing massively in it with an eye on generating sustainable international tourist traffic. Thankfully, we do not have to reinvent the wheel. We can safely borrow a leaf from Mauritius, UAE, Rwanda, China or even South Africa. Yes, we can!      

Tourism is labour and capital intensive, how can Nigeria or Africa at large develop infrastructure in the sector to contribute meaningfully to the Gross Domestic Product, GDP of African nations?

This is one of the major objectives of the Expo. To develop infrastructure in the sector would require sheer shared resolve and commitment amongst African Union member states in this regard. Firstly, I would like to note that in conceptualizing the Expo, we took cognizance of Africa Agenda 2063 which was conceived to usher in “The Africa We Want” by the year 2063 as well as the legitimate aspirations of the AfCFTA. The global trade outlook is such that Africa being essentially an exporter of raw materials is without a shred of doubt weak in goods exportation. Little wonder that while the United States of America exported goods valued at $2.1 trillion in 2022, Africa posted $614.58 billion the following year. You can see the disparity clearly – but is sure does not leave us helpless either. The reason is simple: whilst we might not be strong in goods exportation, the good news is that what dominates global trade is the service sector, which tourism and creative industry are major components of. In fact, the service sector accounts for two-thirds of global trade at present. Thankfully, Africa has comparative and competitive advantage in both tourism and the creative industry. There is, therefore, every justification for Nigeria and all her sister-states in Africa to significantly increase their GDPs and reposition themselves in global trade through the cultour corridor, by means of huge investment in cultour infrastructure.  

How can rural tourism and community-based initiatives broaden economic participation, ensuring that the benefits reach a wide segment of the people?

In our local parlance, we say “politics is local”. But if there is anything more local that politics, it is tourism; because the tourist destinations are actually in the communities and it is the local economy that benefits the most in every tourist endeavour or activity. Whether it is the driver that conveys the tourist to and fro the site or the akara seller or the souvenir dealer or the drinking water hawker or the tour guide that takes the tourist around, what the tourist patronizes is the local economy. The beautiful thing about tourism is that its economic impact is both extensive and inclusive. Tourism effectively accommodates the skilled, the semi-skilled and the unskilled. It’s also gender-friendly and allows virtually all strata of the society to play in it unhindered. So, community-based initiatives alongside infrastructure development are actually the catalyst needed to promote domestic tourism, which in turn rubs off positively on international tourism. On the part of government, there should be a deliberate policy to encourage rural dwellers to take ownership of rural tourism, by viewing it as a profitable economic activity. That way, they would happily protect tourism infrastructure in their communities and complement both public and private sector efforts in marketing tourist sites and cultural tourism events for the benefit of all.      

How have critical stakeholders embraced the concept of Africa Tourism and Creative Economy Expo and what is your key expectation from the Expo?

It’s been awesome. Foremost, we are grateful to Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy for accepting to go the whole hug with Afrocultour on this project. We are equally excited by the interest shown by the African Union Commission in the Expo and their readiness to take active part in it. In the course of articulating this Expo idea and designing its implementation framework, we virtually toured the African continent and benefitted from the wise counsel and kind input of sister-states. Our meeting with His Excellency Hocine Mezoued, Algeria Ambassador to Nigeria was quite insightful. Ditto Her Excellency Gerengbo Yakivu Pascaline, Ambassador of DR Congo to Nigeria. On her part, Her Excellency Mrs. Odette Peterson-Thomas, the High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago to Nigeria was particularly excited that an invitation was being extended to the Caribbeans for them to come share their tourism development experience with their kith and kin in Africa. In no less measure, His Excellency Salem Al Shamsi, UAE Ambassador to Nigeria was enthusiastic about the Expo and graciously shared with us brilliant tips on the prospects of stronger and mutually beneficial Africa-UAE cultoural cooperation. We also benefitted immensely from the wealth of experience of Her Excellency Ms. Mminele, South Africa’s Minister Plenipotentiary in the course of our extensive consultations. There is no denying the fact that South Africa has a lot to offer in this journey. And like so many others, the Bostwana High Commissioner to Nigeria, Her Excellency Philda Nani Kereng has since confirmed her country’s participation in the Expo. As for our key expectation from the Expo, we would like to secure, at a minimum, commitment from African States to increase Africa’s share of Global Trade from below 3% to ten percent (10%) by 2030 through the mainstreaming of culture and tourism into the economies of culturally rich and tourism-strong nations of Africa.

What is the level of the implementation of the Cultural Policy for Nigeria1988 as a roadmap for economic diversification?

The Cultural Policy for Nigeria 1988 does not recognize culture as a veritable tool for economic diversification. If anything, the policy objectives essentially revolve around our identity question, diversity, promotion of national unity and creativity, preservation of national heritage and upholding our cherished values as a people. We hope that the long-awaited revised copy would emphasize the potentially pre-eminent place of culture in our national and subnational economies.

What are the benefits of the cultural industries and how can Nigeria and other African countries maximize creative content for economic gains?

The benefits of cultural industries are immense. They range from income generation to massive job creation. This is why some of us are of the view that rather than advocating for an endowment for the arts, industries leaders should push for full commercialization of the cultural industry by prevailing on government and its broad spectrum of stakeholders to invest in and promote cultural entrepreneurship, in order to rapidly expand our economic space from the cultural flank. As regards maximization of our creative content, yes we have the talents and the market. But we need to do something, as a matter of urgency, about obvious skill-gaps and the inadequacies in our regulatory framework. There should also be long-term plans and policy consistency that would naturally attract the requisite private investment.   

How can this expo address the concerns regarding the significant gap in global tourism that says that Africa accounts for less than five per cent of global tourism revenue valued at over $11 trillion?

The peer review component of the Expo is going to provide an invaluable platform for African states to retrospect, compare notes, share experiences, identify gaps and collectively design an inclusive framework that would jerk up our less than five per cent  continent’s share of global tourism revenue to at least 20 per cent by the same year 2030 when our share of global trade would have risen from less than three per cent to not less than 10 per cent.

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