African Tourism Market - The confession of an African who did not spend his money in Africa or with Africans
Ben Omoakin Oguntala African-in-Chief: Africantourismmarket.net
For many years, even though I was a pan Africanist, I spent most of our development funding outside Africa and with Europeans/Americans to create solutions for Africa. Yes, I was one of those that spent African money outside our communities and then wondered why we are as a people were not progressing. This is me and this is my confession. I am not sure if i deliberately ignored
spending in Africa or on Africans or programmed not to do so. Perhaps some of you experienced people can explain why I did.
I am not suggesting I have made it, but I can say we are heading in the right direction and I am a reformed character. I invite you to read my article and be the judge for yourself. I was brainwashed into thinking anything good did not come out of Africa and it had to be brought in and my brain was wired to think like this so naturally, I did not consider Africa or Africans, This is the truth. I would like to share our experience of how using African professionals to create the new African Tourism Market platform, the result of me spending my African money with Africans has changed my business outlook significantly.
We paid full price in Advance to a Western Development team based in South America and the US and the results were shocking, project was delayed for 4 years, yes, 4 years and the result was not what we expected, we were frustrated! Something changed in me, i am not sure what, and perhaps you readers can help me identify it. Rather than looking for a European to be our leader, we went for An African king, although he is not just an African King, he is a visionary and extremely clued up African leader. This started the trend in looking inward.
Our Chairman, His Royal Highness, Oba Dokun Thompson, The Olooni of Eti-Oni, invited me to meet and work with Adebisi Oloni, Multivision London.
Adebisi Oloni (left), Lade Ogunseitan, founder of The Nous, HRM Oba Dokun & African in Chief Ben Omoakin Oguntala at Celebrating Africa event in Pimlico January 2016.
Our engagement of Multivision London produced our promotional video that is now live on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjgZHU7vzw0
Our VP of Project Development Olubukola Oyefeso Osindero, invited me to consider a Web development team in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. I engaged the development team and would like to share with you what an African web development team did for the African Tourism Market as testimonial to the fact that Africa's solutions are sometimes right there in Africa and we just need to look closer. This development was done under 6 months, even though not completed, we have the end to end structure in place and very pleased. My Co Founder - A Childhood buddy Anthony Isibor
On his trip to Zanzibar with his partner Vanessa Nassi, they showed me an African location that even I had never seen before and this ended up with pictures that we have now used for our promotional materials.
Our brochure - featuring Zanzibar Tanzania was created by Kazim Olawale Hassan from Abeokuta Nigeria Kazim then created the development of our site
The portal was created to allow us to showcase African tourism location and features Zanzibar.
E-Tourism projects allowing more to see African locations that they would never have seen otherwise
Anti-poaching initiative, allowing us to allow African communities to engage in the protection of animals as they are of commercial value alive than dead.
Green Tourism Projects, allowing us to initiate sustainable tourism projects for the next generation of Africans.
Pay per view projects, allowing African communities to generate revenue from the digital contents they create from their communities.
Tourism marketplace, allowing us to create trade directly with African product manufacturers In conclusion, I am not saying we have made it, however I hope you will agree that bouncing African money in African communities has pushed us further than we have ever been and this is just the beginning, looking into Africa and Africans for me has opened my eyes significantly and created some great partnerships in the sector. Plus it really feels good, i feel good about myself doing business this way, I feel morally and ethically that I am doing the right thing, am I crazy or am I on the right track?