Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Art and Culture has said that it is partnering with Federal Government and the private sector to boost tourism and create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive in the state.

The State Commissioner for Tourism, Art and Culture, Toke Benson-Awoyinka, made this disclosure on Wednesday during a tour of some tourist sites in the state, including JK Randle, Freedom Park, National Museum, Onikan House, among others.

Benson-Awoyinka acknowledged that Lagos is open to business development, as well as to promoting tourism, adding: “Lagos is open to showcase our art and cultural heritage to investors.”

This was just as she affirmed that the state is embedded with so much culture, saying that it was time now to show it by creating an enabling environment for all businesses in Lagos to thrive.

“We are going to create that enabling environment for all businesses in Lagos to thrive,” the commissioner said.

Benson-Awoyinka, while noting that Lagos is a huge city that is filled with so much history and with much cultural heritage, as well as the untold story of the state, said that the state government was also ready for development of the youth, assuring of ready collaboration to ensure the set goal was attained giving “a demography of very young people who are waiting out there, seeking for us to hold up their hands.”

“We are ready for collaborations, and for our young people to thrive. If you look around us, you know that we have a demography of very young people who are waiting out there, seeking for us to hold up their hands, and we are ready for them now,” she said.

The Director-General, National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Olugbile Holloway, in his remark, said that partnering with Lagos State government on tourism development would help to “make the national museum a tourist destination in a wider ecosystem for cultural tourism.”

Holloway, who acknowledged that the National Museum is a great heritage to Nigerians, added that the collaboration with the state government government “can make the state a tourist hub and by working with the Lagos State government and incorporating the national museum, it is obvious that with this handshake, the days when we say this is state or this is Federal will be gone.”

“As far as visitors are concerned, they do not have any business with the state or Federal Government. They just want to come and immerse themselves with the people’s culture. With this union, I believe that that definitely will happen,” he said.

On how Lagos residents would benefit from their government’s partnership with so many organizations on tourism development, Holloway said that the “most important thing in this partnership is for us to begin to retell our stories.”

“The National Museum itself is a national monument. We have artefacts as far back as the 15th Century. These artefacts tell you not just the Lagos State story but the story about Nigeria,” he said.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, affirmed the Lagos government’s collaboration with the private sector to boost tourism in the state.

Suleiman noted that the partnership with the private sector in the state would boost the tourism sector, adding: “Art and culture space is one space, it doesn’t matter who you are speaking to.”

“They have the same objective, the same history and we are producing the same outcome,” he said.

Suleiman noted that the objective was to bring together everyone in the room, adding: “It doesn’t work partnering with one person, it’s a story which must have a beginning, middle and an end.”

“They (Lagos State Ministry of Tourism and Culture) are the ones that can call all of us to the table and we will sit down and think about how to do this properly, not haphazardly.

“As we go along, we imagine ourselves being able to put funding behind those who are trying to grow tourism, invest in hospitality, invest in hotel, invest in the transport that connects them, and in some cases, work with museums and monuments and ensure that we can preserve these things not just for our enjoyment, but also for the future generations.

“We must remind ourselves that tourism is also a business. The way you grow tourism, the way you grow art and culture and the creative industry is to make sure that there are enough resources to invest.

“It is only when you have invested that you can raise a standard so that people from all over the world can see and be willing to come here.

“If you go on this tour, you see the wealth of history that is hidden in the ground, that is just waiting to be put out there; that there are a lot of opportunities for businesses, for job creation, to also project this city and this country in the right path,” he stated.

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