The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has been elected Vice President of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) General Assembly..

Mohammed, who represents Nigeria, was elected by acclamation to speak for Africa, alongside Cape Verde, at the 22nd General Assembly of the UNWTO, which opened in Chengdu, China, on Wednesday.

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His election followed the country’s unopposed nomination by the UNWTO Commission on Africa (CAF), which met a day earlier. China was elected President of the Assembly.

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Reacting to the election, the Minister said: ”To be called upon to serve as a Vice President of the General Assembly of the UNWTO is a very big honour to Nigeria.

”It has proven one thing, that in the last two years, we have succeeded in pushing tourism and the Creative Industry as a whole from the back burner to the front burner from a side issue to the main issue. This has also been noticed by the global community and I feel highly gratified by it.”

Nigeria, which will serve on the UNWTO General Assembly until 2019, will host the 61st edition of the UNWTO CAF Meeting in Abuja 4th-6th June 2018.

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