Tourism ministers from 26 African countries will attend the 61st United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Commission for Africa (CAF) meeting in Abuja from June 4-6. This was disclosed by Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Friday.

The African ministers are part of the 180 foreign delegates that will attend the three- day event.

The minister, accompanied by the permanent secretary of the ministry, Grace Isu-Gekpe, said the country hoped to use the opportunity offered by the event to exhibit the warmth of Nigerians, their diverse culture, organisational ability and readiness to host the world, particularly having recorded tremendous success in defeating the insurgency and revamping the economy.

“It’s a global platform for you to tell your own story and what story are we telling? We are telling the world that in the last couple of years, especially three years, Nigeria has been on the mend. We made tremendous progress in our fight against insecurity. We have made progress in revamping the economy and in governance. But for the efforts of this government in the area of fighting insecurity, nobody will be hosting this meeting here,” Mohammed said.

He expressed satisfaction with the level of preparations to host the meeting.

“I am very satisfied and I want to take this opportunity to thank the committee and the various Sub-Committees that have been responsible for this arrangement. We have been working very closely with the management of Transcorp in the last two and a half months, and we are satisfied with what we have seen.

He listed some of the cultural performances billed to feature at the event as the Seki Dance Drama from the South-South; Bolanle Austen-Peter’s ‘Fela and the Kalakuta Queens’, the Ekemini drummers from Akwa Ibom State and the Virgin Dance from Ebonyi State.

During ITB Berlin in March African Ministers met previously under an UNWTO Setting.