The Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) and China Tourism Academy have agreed to deepen cooperation to attract more Chinese tourists to Nigerian destinations.

The agreement was reached at a recent meeting between NTDA officials and officials of the China Tourism Academy in Beijing, the NTDA said in a statement issued on Saturday.

NTDA Director-General, Dr Ola Awakan, during the meeting, called for a structured China-Nigeria Tourism Market Development Programme to provide deeper insights into Chinese traveller trends and preferences.

Awakan said the programme would help Nigeria develop tourism products and destination-marketing strategies tailored to the Chinese market and strengthen its competitiveness in global tourism.

He also advocated increased technical and capacity-building cooperation in tourism data and research, destination development, standards and institutional development.

According to him, stronger collaboration would create opportunities for Chinese tourism investors, operators and hospitality businesses to explore investment-ready projects in Nigeria.

Awakan reiterated President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to diversifying Nigeria’s economy through tourism and stressed the importance of international partnerships to achieve the objective.

Responding, Dai Bin, President of the China Tourism Academy, commended Awakan’s initiatives in Nigeria’s tourism sector and described the country as richly endowed with cultural and historical resources.

Bin expressed the Academy’s readiness to establish a strategic partnership with the NTDA to support its mandate and promote tourism exchanges between Nigeria and China.

He, however, stressed the need to improve Nigeria’s image and visibility among Chinese tourists and tourism operators to strengthen understanding of the country.

“Nigeria’s image needs to be promoted in the minds of the Chinese people for our operators and tourists to understand your country better,” he said.

Bin also called for more exchange programmes in education, training and business to strengthen interactions between the two countries.

The China Tourism Academy also expressed willingness to collaborate with the NTDA to establish a Nigerian International Tourism Promotion Centre in China.

The proposed centre is expected to promote Nigerian destinations and tourism products, improve understanding of the Chinese market and attract more Chinese tourists to Nigeria.

The meeting was attended by Dr Yang Jinsong, Director, Department of International Exchange and Finance at the China Tourism Academy, and other senior officials.

The meeting formed part of Awakan’s working visit to China, which also included participation in a seminar on Climate Action and Sustainable Development Goals for Developing Countries.

The seminar is being facilitated by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce as part of efforts to expose participants to China’s development strategies.(NAN)

The Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, has called for safer drug storage and distribution practices across Nigeria’s drug markets.

She made the call on Saturday during a stakeholders’ engagement with Patent Medicine Dealers Association, Ogbete, Enugu.

The engagement was a sensitisation programme on Good Storage and Distribution Practices (GSDP).

Adeyeye, who was represented by NAFDAC’S South-East Zonal Director, Dr Festus Ukadike, said the engagement was to enlighten medicine traders about safer storage.

She urged medicine dealers to procure their products only from legitimate manufacturers, importers and authorised distribution channels.

She added that manufacturing, importation, distribution and sale of counterfeit or substandard products constituted grave threat to public health, warning that engaging in the act attracts severe regulatory sanctions.

She equally warned the medicine dealers against the sale of expired products, adding that practices such as relabeling or alteration of expiry dates were unethical and criminal.

Adeyeye encouraged them to stock and sell only NAFDAC registered, safe, efficacious and wholesome products.

She also urged the drug sellers to embrace the Coordinated Wholesale Centre (CWC) facility initiative which ensures safer drug distribution mechanisms.

According to her, the future of pharmaceutical distribution in Nigeria relies on organised, secured and internationally compliant systems.

The NAFDAC boss described the current Open Drug Market system operated in the state and across the country as chaotic, poorly regulated and illegal.

She said that under a modern structurally integrated framework, all allied regulatory agencies like NAFDAC, PCN, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and the Police would jointly regulate the medicine markets.

“Open Drug markets shall soon be a thing of the past and the CWC is designed to enhance security, accountability and proper regulatory oversight,” she said.

She explained that medicines were specialised products and people who deal in the sale of medicines must have a high level of responsibility and accountability.

She, therefore, urged drug traders to develop a proper system of recording medicines sold and reporting any adverse reaction arising from the intake of these medicines by consumers.

Dr Cletus Agu, the Assistant Chief Regulatory Officer, NAFDAC, trained drug dealers on how to report cases of adverse drug reactions among consumers and also good storage and distribution practices.

He encouraged them to properly record the procurement, storage, distribution and sale of NAFDAC-approved medicines. (NAN)

From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa

A batch of fifty-four offshore post-graduate scholarship beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme has departed Nigeria for the United Kingdom to resume studies in various universities.

The students took off from Abuja and arrived in London on Friday.

They are among the150 beneficiaries that underwent a pre-departure orientation in August following their deployment by the PAP Administrator, Dr Dennis Brutu Otuaro.

The figure brings to 243 the total number of offshore post-graduate scholarships deployed this year by Dr Otuaro.

The scholars will major in programmes such as software engineering, cyber security, global public health, oil and gas engineering, law, fintech analytics, construction engineering management, forensic audit, data science analytics, among others.

Dr Otuaro had advised the students to take their studies seriously and be good ambassadors of Nigeria and the Niger Delta.

He also urged them to respect the laws of the country and also obey the rules and regulations of their respective institutions.

He stressed that they were expected to come back home after their programmes to add value to their communities and nation-building in the spirit of patriotism.

“Education is the vehicle for the socio-economic advancement and sustainable peace and stability of the Niger Delta.

“Investing in the education of the youths of the region is a sure way of guaranteeing a greater and better tomorrow for the region”, the PAP boss said.

He attributed the large-scale deployments to the unprecedented support of President Bola Tinubu for the programme under his Renewed hope Agenda.

He also thanked the Office of the National Security Adviser for the support and guidance.

He further praised stakeholders of the programme for their cooperation and encouragement.

Dr Otuaro said, “We express our profound appreciation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his massive support for the programme. Without his strong backing, the huge deployments would not have been possible.

“We are also very grateful to the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, for his efficient supervision, deep insights and professional input that have helped the programme.”