African tourism board applauds United Bank of Africa |02 April 2020

The African Tourism Board, a pan-African international, inter-governmental organisation founded with the vision to promote Africa’s huge tourism assets as a catalytic tool to create wealth, jobs and a peaceful, united and prosperous continent while promoting Africa as a global destination of choice, has heralded the donation of a foremost financial institution in Africa, the United Bank of Africa Plc. (UBA)

As countries of the world combat the global pandemic, which has caused thousands of fatalities and threatened the livelihoods of millions of households, shutting down the entire global economic landscape, the UBA, on March 26, 2020 announced an intervention fund of $14,000,000 (Fourteen Million Dollars) donated to Nigeria and 19 other countries across Africa. The coronavirus is currently in 48 out of 54 countries in Africa.

The African Tourism Board therefore welcomes and applauds this move as there is no other time to support recovery efforts of nations in Africa than now.

The African Tourism Board also rallies more support especially for the travel and tourism industry, businesses and SMEs in the sector which have taken the most hit.

The organisation’s recently launched COVID-19 Tourism Recovery Task Force, headed by the former secretary-general of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, Dr Taleb Rifai, commenced its work in carrying out the primary task to innovatively lead frontline efforts, advocacy, partnerships for the recovery of the African tourism sector.

The task force also comprise the ATB President and former Minister for Tourism Seychelles, Alain St Ange, Cabinet Secretary (Minister) of Tourism Kenya, Najib Balala, and former Minister for Tourism Egypt, Hisham Zazzou.

Juergen T. Steinmetz