Cross River Reappoints Ikechi Uko as Consultant to Carnival Calabar

The Governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ben Ayade, has reappointed travel expert, Mr. Ikechi Uko as the consultant for the international aspect of the carnival. This is in line with the re-positioning of Carnival Calabar as the number one event in Africa.

Uko the team leader of The TeamAfrica is also the organiser of Akwaaba African Travel Market. He was appointed last year by the Governor to help birth the international version of the carnival. Eleven countries participated and it was deemed successful. Based on the success of last year’s event, the Governor has reappointed Uko to grow the event in 2016 with a mandate to bring more countries to the biggest street party in Africa.

The 2016 edition of the Carnival Calabar is expected to be bigger and better as last year’s event was the first carnival organised by the Governor. The dates for the events are the Bikers day on the 27th of December and over 10,000 bikers are expected to participate in the major biking showpiece in West Africa. The 28th of December is the main draw which is the Street Carnival.

Last year’s event had over 2.5million visitors in the city for the party. The International Carnival will hold on the 29th of December and is expected to grow bigger than last year’s maiden edition. Already the Carnival Commission has inked an MoU with the Nigerian Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) to promote this year’s event globally with 3 and 5 day packages for tourists.

The Chairman of the Carnival Commission, Mr. Gabe Onah said that this arrangement with NATOP would complete the product and make it available to more families to visit and enjoy the fun, pointing out Nickelodeon will be debuting this year at Tinapa to further excite the children. Mr. Nkereuwem Onung the President of NATOP praised Carnival Calabar for reaching out to professionals to market the biggest tourism product in Nigeria to the world. He promised that NATOP members will soon launch packages for people to sign on for this year’s carnival.