Nene Uwa Hub

The venue was the place on Adeniran Ogunsanya street in Surulere, and my guest was the beautiful, fun loving Nene Uwa Fakoya.  A stamp collector, a post card lover and a lover of everything tourism.  Sorry I forgot to add, a breadth of fresh air. We had so much fun talking about everything but tourism that we almost forgot the interview, but when we started, there was so much to learn about tourism from this tourism entrepreneur. Welcome to her world.

Why did you choose to go into tourism?

Growing up, my dad used to travel a lot, he worked with the united nations and he told us a lot of stories about the places he went to, so I was always excited about places and cultures, that was when the idea of Uwa’s place came up because I said to myself, I would love to do something in this industry.

Before Tourism, who was Nene?

Nene was an administrative officer in an oil company, just doing paper work document and all that, but after a while I told myself that I’m done with the job and I decided to do what I love, so here I am.

Who is Nene?

I’m a happy go-lucky person, jovial, friendly, diplomatic in my own little way, I just like my own space, I love being around my loved ones.

What part of tourism are you into?

More of empowerment and marketing, I don’t package tours, I market tour packages for tour operators, I recently walked into a workshop because I noticed that a lot of people asked me if I do trainings on the tourism business and because the industry is kind of new and young in Nigeria a lot of people don’t know how to go about the business part of it, so every now and then, I bring a lot of my tourism colleagues on board where we can talk to people on how to go about the tourism business.

So, who are your clients?

Those that have just finished the university and love the industry, or those who are working already in the industry but don’t know how to start. So I am into more of the empowerment part and I also host summits just to create awareness, the potentials in this industry is huge but a lot of people are yet to tap into it. Now in Nigeria there is something called Chocolate Tourism: we have cocoa in abundance, we have the farms, commodity, if you go abroad to places like Dominican republic, people go to the cocoa farm to learn how people process cocoa, learn about meals prepared with cocoa and even get to know about the culture of that place thereby empowering the people because you are bringing in people to learn about cocoa farming, how to process it, and in turn too you also learn about the business itself.

Another is Adire which needs promoting also, if you go to kano, you see people who make tie and die locally, you see them in action, so you can package a tour. I just let people in on the richness of the industry through marketing like I’m doing, how to start and I encourage people to invest in the industry.

You are having a virtual summit what is it about?

I collaborate with the company who are into the technical aspect of virtual reality, and they have pre-recorded tourist destination where you can see through the V.R (Virtual reality) when you wear it, it gives you this feel that you are there meanwhile you are not there. I don’t work with them but collaborate with them, they were at my workshop and participants got to experience it, some went to Olumu rock, some went to Lekki conservation centre.

I know you are very much into post cards, hearing it, I was like what? in this digital age!!

Like I said my dad used to travel a lot and he used to send us post cards and what I loved were the pictures. On them sometimes you would see pictures of the people in that country, their food, basically their culture, and then they would put a stamp of that country, he would write about his experience and also it would take days before its received, there is this joy I feel knowing that that person went through so much to get to me, for me its like a cultural exchange because when I send post cards I tell stories about the place so do the other people, I would call it virtual reality but in paper. There is this platform that I am on, it’s called post crossing, we don’t know ourselves, we are all post card lovers, the website generates post cards for members we exchange post cards it’s a way of connecting with people from different countries, talk about our cultures, climate everything.

Is there a business angle to it?

For now, no but I’m doing a photography course so I can document pictures about Nigerian culture and make post cards with them and probably sell them.

Do you think you will find a market for it considering the fact that post cards are almost out of use?

Do you know that there is a community that collect stamps and pay each other, its just a hobby I had to go online to find someone who sells post cards in Nigeria and I found a young guy, his outfit is called Lagos laid bac. He markets merchandise that has to do with promoting the Nigerian culture.

How do you monetize tourism for yourself?

Like I said I help tour operators market their packages and I get commission. the workshop I organise, of course people pay to attend and also, I get sponsors and the virtual summit I’m doing is free online, but if people want the package they pay for it, there is always a way of making money in this industry, its just how you position yourself, I market, organise workshop and do a lot of collaborating.

So, what is your opinion about tourism in Nigeria?

I’ve been to quite a number of places outside the country and I found out that Nigeria is actually a very beautiful place, everybody goes to Dubai because they are rich, but guess what we can get there or even do better , if the government can borrow a leaf from their book, we don’t even need to create tourism, it is who we are, its just allocating money in the right places and the money would go round because if a Russian comes to Nigeria and he wants to experience our local snack, the boli woman is just around the corner, an American wants to eat fish, the fisherman is ever ready with fresh fish that is the beauty and I tell you this money would go round.

What are the challenges you have faced?

Creating awareness, a lot of people just think tourism is about packaging tours, so that’s why I chose to educate people.