Travel/Tourism
5 Reasons Nigeria’s Festival Business Is Thriving
By Nkem Ndem
From stunning white masquerades at Eyo to the week-long festival held in honour of the river goddess, Oshun, Nigeria is home to some of Africa’s greatest festivals. Each year, locals and tourists from neighbouring countries and abroad, flock to events across the continent to witness and participate in festivals that showcase the religious history, music, art, indigenous folklore and cultural heritage of the nation.
While these festivals, of course, celebrate tradition, heritage and the rich history of the people through colourful attires, artistic expositions, and intriguing traditional rites, they also mean good times for performers, visitors and local businesses. Among the largest is the Calabar carnival which usually features as many as 50,000 costumed participants and attracted more than 2 million spectators last year. In what seems to be almost a decade, Nigeria has witnessed a consistent growth in the festival business and Jumia Travel gives five reasons for this.
Festivals mean big business for locals. From cultural to music festivals, these events form an important income stream for local communities and the host regions. They not only bring people together and get infrastructure built, they create jobs and if executed rightly, local businesses are at the centre of the creation of these types of events. With the increasing business opportunities for the events organizations and local businesses, there has been a sort of revolution in festivals in the commercial aspect.
Sponsors are now paying millions to brand festivals. Initially, festivals were done on low key, especially cultural festivals. However, today awareness for such events is now done on a large scale. From billboards, radio jingles and even ticket sales, a lot of strategies are now put in place to create massive awareness and captivate the target audience. These new strategies being adopted are made possible because sponsors and advertisers are willing to spend millions of dollars to target what they know is a truly captive audience. With donations from Telecoms such as MTN, GLO and AIRTEL to companies such as Indomie, UAC, Dangote and NGOs, festival sponsorship spending has been growing exponentially over the last couple of years, consequently leading to a boom in the Nigerian festival business.
Technology and Social Media Buzz
Technology has played a huge role in the boom of the festival industry in Nigeria. In addition to the fact that there have been advances in data gathering and analysis as well as wireless technology which have vastly improved how these festivals are planned and managed, Social Media has played a huge role in the marketing and promotions, as fans build communities online flood their social media feeds with photos, videos and posts highlighting festival fashion, top performances and more; sharing their excitement far and wide. The publicity and social media buzz drive help inspire others to attend these festivals, leading to a significant growth in the festivals business.
Media Coverage
The media coverage of these events has played a huge role in shaping the way these events are seen not just within the country, but around the world as it is hard to tell how many millions of people see it. The minds of these people who get to read about these events in the media and watch them on television are automatically shaped to envision the events as an avenue for fun. This propels them to plan, attend and invest in future events.
Millennial Are Driving Attendance
It is no secret that Millennial in Nigeria, who make up a large percentage of the population, would trade almost anything for the thrill of an experience, especially shareable, personalized experiences. These festivals feature everything that appeals to them, from music, alcohol, highly-shareable moments and a community of fans to a break from the hustle and so they are keen on driving. Their involvement in different aspects (including buying festival tickets, attending festivals e.t.c) has directly or indirectly also led to a growth in the country’s festival business.
Nkem Ndem is a PR Associate at Jumia Travel.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A travel card designed for tourists, business visitors, Diaspora returnees has been launched by Verve in partnership with Providus Bank.
Known as the ProvidusVerve Travel Card, the Naira-based travel card will allow inbound travellers to enjoy a smooth, secure, and convenient payment experience throughout their stay in Nigeria. It was powered by Verve’s secure.
Created to support the surge of tourists, expatriates, business visitors, conference delegates, and returning diaspora expected during the festive Detty December season, the ProvidusVerve Travel Card enables seamless payments for transportation, hotels, dining, shopping, entertainment, and everyday essentials nationwide.
The card also works on select global merchant platforms that accept Verve, including Netflix, Google Play, and other digital services, ensuring travellers enjoy uninterrupted access to familiar services.
The ProvidusVerve Travel Card eliminates the hassle of sourcing naira or converting foreign currency on arrival. It enables instant, secure transactions, reduces reliance on cash, and supports compliance with the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
It also mitigates the risks associated with carrying physical cash such as loss, theft, or fraud, offering a safe, regulation-aligned option for both online and in-person payments.
“The ProvidusVerve Travel Card is a timely solution for inbound travellers seeking reliability, security, and simplicity while navigating Nigeria.
“Together with Providus Bank, we have created a product that eliminates the friction traditionally associated with accessing local payments.
“Whether for tourism, business, or festive activities, this card ensures a smooth financial experience from the moment visitors land,” the Vice President for Issuing and Acquiring Management for Africa at Verve International, Mr Paul Ohakim, stated.
On his part, the Divisional Head for Product Management and Solution Delivery at Interswitch, Mr Ademola Adeniran, described the partnership as a reflection of “Verve’s commitment to designing products that respond to real user needs.”
“The ProvidusVerve Travel Card supports everyday experiences — from booking rides and hotels to shopping, streaming, and dining. It provides inbound travellers with a secure, compliant, digital-first way to experience Nigeria without financial barriers,” he added.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, has disclosed that the federal government may recover and sell the assets of Dana Air to refund passengers and travel agents whose funds remain trapped following the suspension of the airline’s operations.
The Minister disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday at the Ministry’s fourth quarter stakeholders’ engagement to enhance governance for effective service delivery in aviation.
Speaking at the event themed “leveraging public feedback to drive excellence in aviation services, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) will be directed to probe why funds trapped by the airline are yet to be refunded.
He revealed that the authority suspended the operations of the airline as a matter of choice between safety and disaster.
“For Dana, the problem is that it was a choice between safety and disaster. So we didn’t take the commercial thing as priority. The priority was safety, and we all looked at the damning reports that we had met on the table.
“It was a decision of the NCAA to suspend them, but I pushed them to say, look, these are the reports we are seeing on the table about safety record, about lack of standards that put the lives of Nigerians at risk. If they continue flying, I don’t know whether most of us will be here. Many of us would have been victims of one of those flights. God forbid.”
According to him, “I have asked Najomo (NCAA director general) to dig deep to find out how those passengers and agents will be refunded. He has to dig deep on that.
“One solution will also be that if that same individual or those entities are trying to come back to aviation under any guise, whether to go and register a new AOC or use any business within the aviation sector, they have to go and settle their debts first.
“We should look at their assets. There are assets that are still available. Let them sell their assets. Let’s cannibalize their revenue and pay people. Let’s find a way to go after their assets and get money to pay Nigerians who are owed.
“NCAA should do that because they can’t get away with it.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said it has imposed a N5 million penalty on Qatar Airways for consumer protection violations.
The announcement was made on Wednesday by the NCAA’s Director of Public Affairs & Consumer Protection, Mr Michael Achimugu, on X, adding that there may be other sanctions depending on how the airline treats other cases.
“Glad to announce that, today, the NCAA has sanctioned @qatarairways to the tune of five million naira being penalty for consumer protection-related infractions. In addition, the letters of investigation (LOI) written to the airline over other cases may lead to further sanctions if not treated satisfactorily,” Mr Achimugu wrote.
The fine followed an incident when a Nigerian passenger was accused by a Qatar Airways cabin crew member of sexual harassment during boarding in Lagos for a flight to the United States via Doha, Qatar.
The allegation was only reported in Doha, where the passenger was arrested, detained for 18 hours, fined, and compelled to sign a document written solely in Arabic.
Qatar Airways allegedly refused to continue his journey, forcing him to purchase another ticket at considerable financial and reputational cost.
The NCAA said it invited Qatar Airways’ country manager to a meeting over the incident, but he failed to attend, sending subordinates instead.
“I understand that some countries do not have advanced aviation consumer protection regulations like Nigeria does. In certain cases, some countries don’t even have any. This creates a situation where airlines operating out of those countries (mostly national carriers) act with disdain towards consumer protection enforcement in Nigeria.
“This is not a situation that we would accept here. It is against the law for ANY Airlines not to respond to the NCAA. It is against the law to provide false information to the NCAA. It is against the law to fail to comply with the provisions of Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023,” Mr Achimugu said in an earlier post.
In September, the NCAA accused Qatar Airways of mistreating Nigerian passengers and failing to comply with consumer protection regulations under Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023.
The regulator then threatened stiff penalties against the airline for repeatedly disregarding its directives.
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