Last year, Ghana captured the world’s wealth with its Year of Return 2019 movement. The Year of Return was a major landmark spiritual and birth-right journey inviting our African Diaspora, home and abroad, to mark 400 years of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Jamestown, Virginia. This allowed those in the Diaspora to tap into their Pan-African roots and culture with Ghana as well as opening the doors of potential investment for us who are serious about long-term wealth. A total of $1.9 billion has been generated into the economy through activities related to the “Year of Return”.
Also, in this movement, the Ghanaian currency (called the cedi) increased by 3.9% in 2020, the most among more than 140 currencies tracked by Bloomberg, a turnaround from last year, when it weakened 13%. In recent times, the cedi has been one of the strongest currencies in Africa.
Nigeria Can Follow Suit But It Must Do This First
Nigeria Can Be Apart of the Movement to Keep Going Beyond “The Year of Return”
In 2012, Ghana’s government released a 15-year National Tourism Development Plan which projects that tourism receipts will surpass 8.3 billion per year by 2027. On the other hand, the Nigerian government have invested little in nurturing the industry. Nigeria brought in $1.09 billion from international tourism in 2016, the latest year available, according to the World Bank.
While tourism has continued to grow in recent years in Ghana’s to increase its financial status and currency Nigeria must follow suit with its own tourism plan to attract new citizens and new investors into the country. This means Nigeria must strengthen the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) both financially, materially and otherwise to begin to compete with nations like Ghana and other African powerhouses on the continent. Therefore, the local government should try to partner with the private sector to revive and manage these sites in order to generate revenue to sustain those areas.
Nigeria Can Work with Stakeholders in the Local and Global Diaspora
Does Nigeria have to follow suit with Ghana with the Year of Return? It would not be a bad idea, however, I think there is enough creativity in Nigeria to attract tourism dollars to build a serious sector of wealth and hospitality for global citizens. We do this by coming out with ideas, something we can start working on as stakeholders or private sector before the government or investors can come in to support us as well as promoting and marketing of our Nigerian tourism sites to both local and global communities.