Zoo opens in Nigeria's Lagos as part of efforts to boost tourism

 

    If you live in Lagos, Nigeria's sprawling commercial capital or are simply visiting, you can now see some of Africa's wildlife up close. Located in a suburb 40 kilometres outside of the city, is the Omu resort which houses a zoo and an amusement park.
    Opened in 2014, Omu resort hopes to draw local residents and attract tourists coming to the West African country.
    Olabisi Falase, the resort's Public Relations Officer says they have invested over 836 million naira (4,201,005 U.S. dollars) in the facility.
    "We opened up this resort as a result of lack in the tourism industry. For a couple of people we had asked about tourism in Lagos, there really are no tourist destinations apart from only a handful. We wanted to have something unique, something that contains quite a number of activities. You know we have a zoo, an amusement park, we have a sea world, go-carting, quad-biking, and we have a fun area, play area for kids," he said.
    Nigeria is putting plans in place to revamp its tourism industry as part of efforts to wean the country off its reliance on oil revenue. A slump in global prices is hammering the West African giant's economy.
    Some of its tourist destinations include game and nature reserves. But many of these are located far away from major cities.
    Since its opening a little over a year ago, the resort has hosted nearly 450,000 visitors.
    Some of the animals were brought in from Cameroon and Niger.
    Apart from the zoo and amusement park, the resort also offers quad biking facilities and a play areas for children.

Link to the video: Zoo boosts Nigeria's tourists attraction

   

Pics courtesy: Angela Ukomadu

Nigerian company aims to increase access to decent toilets

    The sight of people defecating openly can be quite shocking for many to see but for many Nigerians, they are left with no choice as they lack access to decent toilets.
   Some 2.4 billion people around the world do not have access to decent sanitation and more than a billion are forced to defecate in the open, risking disease and other dangers, according to the United Nations.
    Even where there are toilets around the world, some hardly warrant the name as they are not located in safe and clean facilities.
    In a report released in 2014, the United Nations stated that over 30 million Nigerians have no access to safe toilets.
    One company that has been involved in reducing the number of people who defecate openly is Dignified Mobile Toilet company.
    From what was just a temporal need at a high profile wedding in 1996, Caje Oleforo and his late friend, Otunba Gaddafi started the business of procuring mobile toilets for public and private use.
    Caje Oleforo, Executive Director, Dignified Mobile Toilet Company says it is still surprising that in a metropolitan city like Lagos, many still defecate openly.
    "We have come of age. We are more than 50 years. We are exposed, Nigerians are widely travelled. If you get to the airport, I was listening to the news yesterday and I heard something like 50 Million people travel through our airports both locally and overseas, every year. And so with that figure, you will think that you won't find to a reasonable extent open defecation but it still happens along our corridor, along our street here." Caje said.
    There are over 10,000 public mobile toilets in the city stationed at central markets, bus stops and schools.
    All over the world, World Toilet Day is marked on the 19th of November yearly.
    It is an international day of action to create awareness on the importance of toilets and draw attention to the global sanitation challenge, open defecation.
    Apart from the mobile toilet being a way of curbing the rate of open defecation in the city, some local residents see this as a business opportunity.
    In major cities globally, sanitation remains a part of its biggest challenge.
    With international days like the World Toilet Day, many hope that the global sanitation challenge will help reduce open defecation.

   

 Caje Oleforo, Executive Director, Dignified Mobile Toilet Company