The First National Deputy President of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA), Pastor Chinyere Umeasiegbu (Pastor Chi) has called on NANTA members to re-elect her to the position of First National Deputy President so that the association can consolidate on the achievements and strides made over the last two years, and also push forward with new visionary ideas that would further impact positively on members and their businesses.

Speaking to journalists on the 50th elective Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association billed for Ibadan, Oyo State next month, Pastor said she is coming to NANTA’s leadership as a tested hand: “I am not coming as armchair. I’m coming as an experienced leader. I’m coming as value added, because that is what I promised. That is what I do. I’m coming to deliver on what has been started. We do not want a disruption at this stage. See the foundation that was laid in two years. Another two years, let’s consolidate. That’s what I’m asking for in 2026. We would not only do that, we would go into some novel ideas.”

Pastor Chi reeled out some of the giant strides of the association under the current executives. These include international business exposure by continuing with the NANTA International Travel and Trade Conference (ITTC) which took the association to The Gambia, embarking on  trainings for members, the NANTA Hospitality Business Initiatives, interfacing with relevant governmental agencies on issues affecting members and the association and many more. She spoke further:  “We came in April 2024. We said let’s go back to WTM again, 2024. But I have noticed something with the rest of my team that in 2023 WTM, almost all those of us that went, they did not understand the power of WTM. They were just going there for paparazzi, taking pictures, picking pens, and souvenir. So in 2024, I gathered them, I said, look, team, let’s have training. First of all, let’s be able to guide our people to get visas properly. Let’s guide them on how to process the visa properly. Now, let’s also train them to know that WTM is a powerful tool for business development. So we did all that training towards WTM 2024. Now, we also decided that WTM 2024 was going to be promoting domestic tourism, promoting Nigeria. I brought that initiative because I was project head, WTM. It was my purview. I said if we’re going to do that, let’s go and meet other people to see how they can support us in raising fund. Because for WTM 2022, 2023, even 2024, members were the ones that raised the funding for it. We had to mobilize. We went into mobilization. We approached Ibom Air,  Ibom Air joined NANTA to go to WTM in 2024. Sabre, a GDS, joined NANTA to go to WTM in 2024. So, WTM 2024 was NANTA glorified, as it were. Remember, 2022, we just came in. 2023, came into leadership government and all. They didn’t show up. So, we showed up. 2024, we came gun blazing. And now in 2024, the government decided they were going to show up. They showed up with our partner association, and with the FTAN, the umbrella association, and we said, about time. That’s how it’s supposed to be. And therein, in WTM, at a very wonderful and auspicious meeting, we decided, let us hand over WTM to Nigeria as a country to say, this is not going to be about NANTA again. It’s going to about you. And we were able to call the commissioner to say, this is what we want to do. We called the NTDA person, to say, we want to hand over. And there was a small brief ceremony. It was captured where we handed over, symbolically, WTM to Nigeria. And we said, Nigeria, in 2025, please let us come as Nigeria. We will all come under you, which is how it’s supposed to be. We did that in 2024. Unfortunately, Nigeria did not represent in 2025. We were getting calls. WTM organizers were calling NANTA. What’s happening? Aren’t you guys coming? They said we’ve held it up for Nigeria, but we are not seeing Nigeria. So there was no representation of, whether it’s NANTA, or representation of Nigeria in 2025. And so, I suggested to our exco, before all these election things started, I think we should go back in 2026. It is going to be part of my vision of coming back. Because there are things I want to completely set up, make it autopilot running. That’s part of what I want to come back to be re-elected.” She also said with her background in investment banking, she would continue to pursue opportunities to open up extra streams of income outside ticketing for members.She gave an example with NANTA Hospitality Initiative: “With NANTA Hospitality Initiative, I’ve started it to go identify hotels, resorts, restaurants, any player in the hospitality space to give them proposals. The reason is two levels: discount for my members, and discount for my members to earn money. We did that with Lakowe Lakes. Lakowe Lakes Resort sent us an invite, industry-wide invite. I pushed it out, and we went there. The deal is signed. The MOU is sealed. We sent it Ziba Resort. We are sending it out. I told my team, I said, not just in Lagos, in Abuja, in Port Harcourt, anywhere.”

Pastor Chi also harped on the need for gender balancing and equity saying it is important that NANTA, which is celebrating its 50^th year anniversary AGM, with about 70 per cent of the members being women, must give females opportunity to be represented in the core national executives.  

Going down memory lane, she explained that as NANTA marks its 50th anniversary AGM in April, there should be equitable representation, pointing out that electing her would create certain level of gender balance as she would be the only female voice in the core national executives.  

Records indicate that only two women, Theresa Ezeobi (Ojo) and Susan Akporiaye, are the females that have served as National President, making it imperative that female voices are not shut out from the core national executives of the association.