MINISTER of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, has charged Heads of Agencies under his Ministry to pursue projects and programmes that will have direct impact on Nigerians and transform their lives.The Minister gave this admonition in Abuja during a meeting with Senior Management Staff of the Ministry and Chief Executive Officers of parastatals in the Ministry.Chief Duke reminded Heads of parastatals of the targets set for the culture and tourism sector in the Vision 20: 2020 of the Federal Government which include a 10 per cent annual growth rate in tourists' arrival at Nigerian airports and land borders from 2010; increased contribution of tourism to the GDP from 2.5 per cent in 2007 to 5 per cent by 2013; increase in number of registered hotels in Nigeria from 1,700 in 2008 to 2, 500 by 2013; development of 5 tourism clusters for Nigeria by 2013; training of additional 10,000 tourism and hospitality workers by 2013; development of a two-day entry visa processing procedure for Nigerian Embassies; increase the contribution of cultural industries from 2 per cent in 2007 to 70 per cent by 2013; generation of 2 billion naira annually from Nigerian theatre and carnival from 2010; and generation of a minimum of $100 million in craft exports by 2013 etcDuke said while the Ministry and its agencies have been active in recent times, a lot still needs to be done to achieve set objectives: 'There is no doubt that we have carried out a lot of activities in the Ministry since I assumed office, but I suspect that we have not performed as well as we ought to. Our current level of performance which measures how we are executing our mandate, in my opinion, begs for improvement. Put differently, we cannot easily point to the measurable impact which a lot of activities that have been carried out in the sector have on the citizenry.'He therefore charged them, as technocrats and experts, to fashion out modalities for deepening the implementation of President Jonathan's Transformation Agenda, which is basically aimed at making tangible impact on the lives of all Nigerians. The minister stated that appreciable achievements can only be made by building a lasting synergy between the agencies and the Ministry. 'We have, at times, even worked at cross purposes as though we work for different Ministries and Governments just as we have all, at other times, collectively shied away from trying new methods of achieving results. Our gathering here today, therefore, provides a great opportunity for us to draw lessons from our past experiences and adopt a more pragmatic approach to ensure that our programmes and activities are of direct benefit to the people of Nigeria.'The Minister also reminded the senior management staff of the central role Government has given the Ministry in the forthcoming National Centenary Celebration and enjoined them to get prepared to play this role by piloting the relevant projects which fall directly under the mandate of the Ministry for a successful implementation. Directors-General and Chief Executive Officers of parastatals in the Ministry commended the Minister's leadership style, which they described as democratic, peaceful andfocused.The meeting is a platform created by the Minister to interact regularly with Heads of Agencies and senior management staff of the Ministry to evaluate policy implementation and gauge the impact of such on Nigerians. In attendance were heads of National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), NIHOTOUR, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), National Gallery of Art (NGA), National Orientation Agency (NOA), National Troupe of Nigeria, while heads of National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), National Theatre and National Institute for Culltural Orientation (NICO) were represented.
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