Presidency, governors, others mobilize support for IPADA 2025

…as Akinboboye unveils 5 years programmes

As preparations for IPADA Celebrations 2025 gather momentum, rally calls from around the world are getting louder by the day, with the Presidency, state governors, the Organised Private Sector (OPS), diplomatic community in Nigeria, different organisations across the globe, the Diaspora and others have thrown their weight behind the event.

This came as 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 invitation to them to mobilise their different constituencies towards participating in the yearly event that is geared at promoting tourism and fast tracking the development of Nigeria and Africa’s economy.

Tinubu is taking on this 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 activities stretched across arts, music, fashion, beauty pageant, entertainment, culinary and business, is the brainchild of Otunba 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 years programmes unveiled by him 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 the business community and different stakeholders in 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 power delegation headed by Rev. Joseph Titus Nagombe.

Also giving a push to the celebration was the Governor of Katsina State, Dr Dikko Umaru Radda, who was represented by Yusuf Rabiu, Commissioner of Commerce and Industry.  Engineer (Dr) Jani Ibrahim, President of The 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 flip 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. The Director General of NACCIMA, Engr. Olusola Obadimu was also at the event alongside other top officials of NACCIMA

Dr (Mrs) Abike Dabiri Erewa, the Chairperson, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), attended the event, showing the commitment of Nigerians and Africans in Diaspora for the event.

Akinboboye: After Japa, it’s time for Africans in Diaspora to Japada 

Unveiling the five years programme for IPADA Initiative, Akinboboye noted the reason is to make it easier for people to participate in the different events put out. According to him:

‘‘When you have five years 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 skeptical 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 that have come and enjoy what IPADA Initiative is about. At that point, people then start looking ahead of time for five years.

‘‘Our target is 100 million visitors to the Continent of 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 you are interested in Diaspora engagement, all you need is to come to us and we would put the package together and work out the logistics to get people across to Nigeria and other parts of Africa that is 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 years 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 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’s a daily movement. From January, you have time you look at what is happening in the month of January, all through to December.

‘‘With our calendar, you can travel to any part of Africa. IPADA is on a daily basis, January through December. We travel on 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, that will be coming.

‘‘The idea again is, to enable people to be paying little by little. If you want to come for IPADA Initiative celebration in 2027, you can book it now, no inflation will affect you, if you pay a 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 Africa countries.’’