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| NTDC D.G Mrs Sally Mbanefo |
Mrs Sally Mbanefo
the new Director General of The Nigeria Tourism Development Commission
NTDC, though found herself in an unknown world
of tourism sometimes ago when she
was appointed but the highly cerebral and beautiful woman has shown the world that
she has chosen to make success of her
term with a unique approach to tourism
development in Nigeria .
It is
glaring that domestic tourism is not at its best in Nigeria when compared to
other countries who are equally blesses with the wonders of nature, and
charity they say begins at home, that is why she has decided to make , developing and
promoting domestic tourism as her utmost priority, by this Nigerians will not only
have a feelings and enjoy what they have through direct participation
but also use tourism sector as an
economic booster and a good source of employment generation.
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| DG. Mbanefo in a tete- a tete with Ogbeni Tope Awe |
Mbanefo popularly
known as white bitch while unfolding his action plan at a media parley in Lagos acknowledge the effort of her
predecessor Otunba Olusegun
Runsewe in
changing the face of Nigeria tourism , and
promise to continue to build on where
he stopped by encouraging all and
sundry in the country to see the need to
promote domestic tourism “ Otunba Runsewe has
no doubt taken tourism out of the
moribund status it was before to a good level and i am going to start from where
he stopped, my mission is to demystifying
Nigeria tourism asset and make it open to the world and at the same
time encourage Nigerians rather than
going for vacation abroad to stay t
home to enjoy the beautiful nature Nigeria can offer as well”
She said further that “ championing domestic
tourism is what i really want to take seriously because i want
the world to see that Nigeria has a good story to tell, i think we all know that if we don’t promote
our own nobody will do it for us and
that is why i m seeking for stakeholders
support in making this dream
realizable .
Adding that “ i am
not saying that we won’t be
participating in foreign tourism
but my focus is more on developing and
promoting domestic tourism so as to generate more revenue for the country
and create Job for thousands of youths in line with Mr. President
agenda”. In order to achieve this
goal, Mbanefo disclosed that she
has formulated three
strategy which includes;
Rebuilding the NTDC, Growing the
tourism value change in Nigeria and
reinventing Nigeria Tourism industry, the first one which i have started
by training and retraining the
commission’s staff on the need to internalize what they are promoting and the two other strategies involve
all stakeholders in the industry, Nigeria is about 160 million people and there
is no way only NTDC staffs can do the job of
promoting tourism alone , we need everybody to be involve in this
crusade so that we will all enjoy the
dividends when it began to yields
Mrs. Nbanefo also
disclose her plans to tour all the major
tourism site in each region of the
country, “ i am not going to sit
down in my office and formulate policies but i will make sure i tour all the
major sites in the 3 geo political region starting with the North west, followed by
south west and South East, the trip which
she hope will be concluded before the
end of the year.
“ i am not stopping at that , i have receive
invitations from some state tourism board and i have met some of the tourism
commissioners in various state too
with the
intention of encouraging them to develop the sites that are yet to be
developed in their respective states and
promote it for increase revenue and employment
drive.
Speaking on why the
commission has began partnering
some private organization in
promotion of tourism in the country, Mrs
Mbanefo maintained that the essence is to get
value for Nigeria tourism , adding that “ banks, hospitals transport companies and
others have signifies their interest in
offering qualitative services at
affordable rate to both local and foreign tourists.
She also promised to visit Nigeria embassies in foreign countries to
speak with the ambassadors on the
need to make visa procurement fast and
easy for tourist who want to come and
visit sites in Nigeria.
Knowing the
important of the media, Mrs Mbanefo said she considered the media especially
the tourism journalists as a stakeholders in promoting the sector and urge them to be a good partner and passionately support her vision of
promoting domestic tourism in Nigeria.” We cannot tell the story ourselves at NTDC, i am going to operate an open door policy and we are soliciting for your
support in making this dream and vision
realizable , ideas that will help this vision to grow are also welcome" she said
Also in his remark, a
doyen of tourism industry , Ogbeni Tope Awe also advocated for the need to look
inward into promoting domestic tourism in the
country and lauded her
vision for the sector “ i want to appealed to you all to please
support her in the
advocacy for development and promotion
of domestic tourism in Nigeria “.
Meanwhile, the Guild of
Tourism Journalists has lauded
the open door policy and vision of the NTDC boss Mrs Sally Mbanefo of a promoting
domestic tourism in the country.
The Guild in a press statement signed by its president Comrade Wale Ojo Lanre said , “ The new
NTDC boss is no doubt passionate about taken tourism to another level in Nigeria with her plan which she unfolded at the media parley.
They noted that “ acknowledging her predecessor, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe is
in order and her plan to start where he stopped
is an indication that she is
poised to take tourism to a greater height in Nigeria
While assuring her
of the Guild unflinching support, the
group also urged her to beware of sycophants
in the industry who are not interested in her success
but only in milking the NTDC for personal gain “.
