Otunba Olawanle Akinboboye, the Founder of IPADA Initiative and IPADA Carnival, has explained the immediate run of success which IPADA Initiative is presently enjoying.
While responding to questions from State House Correspondents last night at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Abuja, venue of the Presidential Press briefing for Ambassadors and High Commissioners, about the initiative, the tourism icon, said, IPADA Initiative has remained attractive because:
“Our focus is creating an African shopping mall. We are putting the entire African continent,in one huge basket and showcasing it to the world. We are making it easier for people to connect with the continent. We believe that when you combine all the tourism products in the continent of Africa, no country or continent, would be able to compete with us.
“We are on 30.2 million square kilometres of area with 1.5 billion people in the continent.We have approximately additional 1.5 billion in the Diaspora, 30 million in the Caribbean. We have over 120 million in Brazil, over 318 million in the Americas,about 9.6 million in Europe. When we bring all these together, we believe that we can beat the French domination of tourists. They got a hundred million plus tourists’ visits in 2023 and they may get more this year, because of the Olympics That’s one country and we are 54 countries in Africa . IPADA is a return, not only for people of African descent, but also for lovers of Africa.
“You can then imagine, if only 50 million of them come to the continent, and spend as little as $5000, especially now that their currency is strong, it is extremely encouraging for them to travel because with their $1000 they will have like N1.500.000. Nigeria has the largest concentration of Africans. With Nigeria having 774 local governments, we believe very strongly that the country is poised to make it possible for people to connect through Abuja or Lagos.our focus right now is is about prosperity, prosperity in Nigeria, and the African continent,” Said Otunba Olawanle Akinboboye.
