…Organisers unveil 5-year programmes
Riding on the success of last year’s edition, IPADA Celebrations 2025 is gathering momentum, amid calls from around the world for participation getting louder.
The yearly event is geared at promoting tourism and fast-tracking the development of Nigeria and Africa’s economy.
Considering its potential of attracting huge foreign delegations and tourists, the presidency, state governors, the Organised Private Sector (OPS), the diplomatic community in Nigeria, different organisations across the globe, the Diaspora and others have thrown their weight behind the event.
Following the development, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently hosted envoys from across the world, OPS, state governors, and others, in the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa to intimate them with this year’s celebration and formally extend an invitation to them to mobilise their different constituencies towards participating in this year’s event.
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President Tinubu is taking on the duty as the grand patron, chief host and global ambassador of IPADA Initiative. Realising the importance of the bold and ambitious initiative to drive traffic to Nigeria and Africa, focusing on its cultural tourism and creative industries.
IPADA Celebrations, which made its entry to the scene last year, with 10 days of activities stretched across arts, music, fashion, beauty pageant, entertainment, culinary and business, is the brainchild of Wanle Akinboboye, president and founder of La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort.
The one-day gathering at the Presidential Villa witnessed the declaration of massive support by the various attendees, who eulogised the imperative of the yearly event, pledging their support and participation in the event as well as commending Akinboboye for the laudable five-year programmes he unveiled in promoting Nigeria and Africa.
In attendance were about 450 people, representing a cross-section of the diplomatic community, with 30 countries, 16 embassies, and 18 state governments, as well as the business community and different stakeholders in the Nigerian tourism community.
Among the state governors who took to the podium to declare their support for the celebration was the Governor of Taraba State, Dr Agbu Kefas, who was represented by a powerful delegation headed by Joseph Titus Nagombe.
Also giving a push to the celebration was Dikko Umaru Radda, governor of Katsina State, who was represented by Yusuf Rabiu, Commissioner of Commerce and Industry. Jani Ibrahim, president, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), and chairman, Organised Private Sector of Nigeria (OPSN), led the private sector.
He added to the event by disclosing the plan by NCCIMA to sign a Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with IPADA Initiative to formalise its support in the coming days. Olusola Obadimu, director general of NACCIMA, was also at the event alongside other top officials.
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Abike Dabiri Erewa, chairperson, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), attended the event, showing the commitment of Nigerians and Africans in Diaspora to the event.
Unveiling the five-year programme for the IPADA Initiative, Akinboboye noted that the reason is to make it easier for people to participate in the different events put out. According to him:
‘‘When you have a five-year programme, it makes it easy for many to participate. Usually, people like to plan ahead, and they like to know if there is a particular system in place, and a lot of people are still sceptical about Africa; they are really not sure what they are coming to see.
‘‘So, they need a platform which should be created for them. With a five-year programme, they will be able to hear stories of people who have come and enjoy what the IPADA Initiative is about. At that point, people then start looking ahead of time for five years.
‘‘Our target is 100 million visitors to Africa with 54 countries through Nigeria, within a period of five years. We believe that this is possible and that is why we are making Nigeria the hub for this mega project, which allows everyone to partake in it. Regardless of who you are, your organisation, where you are based, and interested in Diaspora engagement, all you need is to come to us and we will put the package together and work out the logistics to get people across to Nigeria and other parts of Africa that are of interest to you or your group.
“We want more people to be part of this initiative and that is why we have unveiled the five-year programme that covers the whole of the continent. It is a journey that we have embarked on ,and we believe that this will expose more of our continent to the world and boost our economic development by attracting the right people and investments to the various sectors.
“We believe very strongly that it presents an opportunity for harvesting and collating the whole tourism products in North Africa, South, East, West, and Central Africa together. With this, all the other continents won’t be able to compete with us.
‘‘We make it so easy for you to land in Lagos, you land in Abuja, and you can also find yourself in Ethiopia. With one look, you see all the programmes that are happening in Ethiopia, and it is a daily movement. From January, you have time to look at what is happening in the month of January, all through to December.
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‘‘With our calendar, you can travel to any part of Africa. IPADA is on a daily basis, January through December. We travel on a daily basis because we have health tourism, business tourism, charity tourism, archaeological tourism, when we put all these together, nobody else can compete with us and I believe that when that is established, it’s not going to be just African descent that we will see. There are lovers of African too, who will be coming.
‘‘The idea again is to enable people to be paying little by little. If you want to come for the IPADA Initiative celebration in 2027, you can book it now, no inflation will affect you, if you pay 25% of the total package, and you come in 2040, no inflation.
‘‘This whole initiative is to develop the continent of Africa, those that have Japa (Left) will Japada (Return). We need to create an economic upgrade; we need to create business opportunities so Ipadians can move around. That is why we are partnering with NACCIMA. Anything we do in Nigeria will be replicated throughout the 54 African countries.’’
