Nigerian ministry of information, Arts and culture is currently working with the UNWTO and some other stakeholders in the private sector to establish tourism academy in the Country.
The Minister of Information, Arts and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed that the initiative was planned and launched at the global conference on tourism, culture and the creative industry held in Lagos, last November.
Alhaji Mohammed revealed this at the maiden graduation ceremony of the Terra Academy for the Arts, TAFTA held in Lagos on Friday.
Transformative training
The Minister said the tourism academy would be located in Lagos to provide accessible, vocational managerial and transformative training for the tourism and hospitality sector.
Alhaji Mohammed described TAFTA as one of the private sectors, the government would be partnering to provide Nigerian youths with employment opportunities.
He said it would also help to explore all areas of possible collaboration with the private sector and extend the training across the length and breath of Nigeria.
“I want to describe TAFTA as a partner in progress as they would be complementing the efforts of the government not just to create jobs but also to create the enabling environment for the private sector to provide jobs for the teeming population of our youths,” the Minister noted.
Alhaji Mohammed, in his speech also appreciated the founder of Terra Academy for the Arts, TAFTA, Mrs Bolanle Austen-Peters for distinguishing herself, through the Austen-Peters production and also placing Nigeria on the global map.
“I am not surprised that in addition to discovering, nurturing, exposing and projecting talents from Nigeria through Terra Kulture since 2003, Mrs Austen-Peters deemed it fit to create a platform for indigent youths to learn technical skills in the areas of light design, sound design, animation , script writing among others,” the minister said.
However, the Founder of Terra Kulture and TAFTA
Invest in knowledge
Mrs Bolanle Austen-Peters, at the TAFTA maiden graduation ceremony in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, re-emphasised the need to invest in knowledge acquisition for the youths.
She said the training was spurred by her interest in exploring creative means to build wealth as she also believed in the potentials in the younger generation.
According to her, the training was done in collaboration with Mastercard Foundation, which was entirely free for the beneficiaries.
Creative space
Mrs Austen-Peters said her goal was to train 65,000 young people in the creative space within 5 years.
” The dream of TAFTA for me is a journey of possibilities, I started Terra Academy from my living room because I believe in the future of the younger generation”.
” I have been privileged to have an excellent team who I know from nowhere. I appreciate the Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Professor Duro Oni for their contributions, “she said.
” With the help of Professor Oni and others, we were able to develop the curriculum to teach children on animation.”
She congratulated everyone present as she recognised that jobs were not available.
Mrs Austen-Peters concluded by encouraging youths to open their minds to get jobs anywhere in the world with the knowledge they have acquired.
Lateefah Ibrahim
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