Tinapa Business Resort Goes Operational April 2007
By Akere-Maimo
News about the
creation of a first-ever African free trade zone located at Adiabo Village, near Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, Southeast of Nigerian, reached the Yaounde Bureau of The Entrepreneur with much exhilaration. While watching a football match on a popular South African sports channel, Super Sports, a business
friend quickly drew my attention to the advertising spot of Tinapa on the silver screen. Out of sheer curiosity, I tried to quiz him on the socio-economic impact of creating Africa’s Dubai in the heart of Nigeria’s maritime-rich south region, sharing boundaries with the United Republic of Cameroon. We spoke at length with each one of our ideas swirling in a multitude of advantages. Not until now, many Cameroonians are yet to discover what Tinapa is all about. Even those who are so fond of Dubai and Hong Kong are still toying with the fact that Tinapa is far from being just a dream. Tinapa will soon go operational this March, although the symbolic handing over ceremony of the completed portion of the shopping area took effect on Sunday 31st December 2006. The Project Manager of Julius Berger, Mr. Arthur Wagner, handed the Work Completion Certificate and Keys to the Emporium to Governor Duke.
The Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo was already quick to say he is pleased with the rate at which the project is progressing. He told Govenor Donald Duke of Cross River State, initiator of the project, and Chief Festus Odimegwu, Chairman of the project representing the private sector, to keep the project within the ambit of private sector operated, where the public sector is only allowed to provide the infrastructure and enabling environment.
The Big Idea
For sure, Tinapa is an exciting dream aimed at building a world-class integrated business and leisure resort, the first of its kind in Nigeria and in the whole of Africa. Located on the Calabar River, and contiguous to the Calabar Free Trade Zone (Calabar FTZ), Tinapa is to play a catalytic role in establishing Calabar as a trade and distribution centre in West Africa. Calabar, with its natural potential for tourism, through the unique
vision of Tinapa, will transform itself into a global trading hub reminiscent of great international trade zones like Hong Kong and Dubai. An elaborate project expected to have gulped an estimated N45 billion ($350 million). Tinapa covers a surface area exceeding 80,000 m² and employed about 20,000 workforce from the start till the end of the project. It may interest readers to know that Chinese investors made plans to pump $50 billion in this fabulous scheme. The contract was awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, the leading construction company in Nigeria.
Tourism Melting Pot
Cross River State upheld today as the ideal tourism destination in Nigeria, is capitalising on the opportunities provided by tourism through the strategic and planned marketing of extraordinary tourism assets such as the
Ikom Monoliths, the Kwa and Agbokim Waterfalls, the Old Slave Route and Ranch Resort. Complimentary facilities to be found in Calabar such as the Calabar Golf Course, the Drill Ranch and Cercopan Sanctuary, Mary Slessors Residence and Grave, the Cultural Centre and the Calabar Stadium, all add further value
to the tourism product of the region.
‘The impact of what we are doing in the tourism sector will begin to manifest in 2010; that is when Cross River State will become one of the world’s tourism destinations,’ Donald Duke, the Executive Governor of Cross River State
told the media recently with much confidence and enthusiasm. Entertainment will also be a key feature with restaurants, bars, nightclubs, hotels and leisure facilities. This would certainly go a long way to valorise the steady rising Nigerian movie industry baptized Nollywood, which is third to none but Bollywood
and Hollywood.
Economic Fallouts
They are manifold. The vision of Tinapa is bold, thrilling and insightful, highlighting the determination of Cross River State Government, under a Public-Private Partnership, to deliver a project that will ensure high
economic growth and prosperity for the people of Cross River State and Nigeria at large. The vision builds on the principle that the creation of a trade hub and a vibrant business nexus will attract investors, traders and business travellers and subsequently domestic, regional and international leisure tourists.
It is the ultimate centre for retail and wholesale commercial activities with ECOWAS sub-region taking advantage of the international agreement on free movement. Located right next to the Calabar Free Port, it will serve as the main gateway to the northeastern markets of Nigeria. The four-anchor emporiums will include a tantalising product mix of electronic goods, clothing and textiles, food and automotive products, supported by retailers supplying diverse markets such as cosmetics, toys, books and computers.
Tinapa incorporates a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for investment purposes that will be granted FTZ status. Tinapa offers outstanding, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for investors including: exemption from all Federal, State and Local Government taxes, levies and rates; entitlement to approved enterprises to import, free of customs, any capital goods, consumer goods, raw materials, components to be used with an approved activity; freedom from legislative provision pertaining to taxes, levies, duties, and foreign exchange regulation, repatriation of foreign capital on investment in the zone at any time; unrestricted remittance of profits earned by investors; no import or export licence. You can rent free land during the construction stage; subsequently the management of the Zone shall determine rent. Companies operating in the Zone may employ foreign managers and qualified personnel.
NEPAD’s Promise Fulfilled
Tinapa is structured to meet to the needs of a NEPAD project in its truest sense and will serve as a momentous symbol of the African Renaissance, heralding an age of positive economic growth and free trade. NEPAD (New African Partnership for African Development) is designed to address the present challenges facing Africa. Issues such as the rising poverty levels, underdevelopment and the continued marginalisation of
Africa in world affairs, needed a new radical intervention, spearheaded by African leaders, to develop a new Vision to beef up the regional economies.
Lessons for Cameroon
Cameroon has often been hailed as Africa in miniature in terms of tourist potentials, the economic breadbasket of the Central African sub-region and the oasis of peace in the troubled sub-Saharan region. But of what use are all these appellations if the government cannot put resources into proper use? Given its natural asset, Cameroon ought to have been the first country to drum her chest for having a supreme tourism resort in Africa.
Today, tourism stands out as one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Tourism worldwide has expanded spectacularly over the last 5 decades and according to the World Tourism Organisation’s (WTO) forecasts,
long-distance travel will grow faster (5.4% annually) in the next decade than travel within regions (3.8%). WTO statistics for 2002 estimated international tourist receipts at US $463 billion from 693 million tourists across the globe; WTO has projected more than one billion tourist arrivals by 2010.
Notwithstanding, the Ministry of Tourism under the helm of Baba Hamadou
has to refurbish Cameroon’s tourist infrastructure to bring Cameroon to the level of a world tourism destination. The dilapidating sporting infrastructure has to be completely overhauled so as to promote sports tourism. And what if the Cameroonian government transforms Kribi and Limbe into CEMAC’s El Dorado
© The Entrepreneur Newspaper 2007. All Rights Reserved.
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