From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Senate has backed Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, South Africa and Egypt kilishi export deal which is expected to generate $10 billion.
Chairperson, Senate Committee on Tourism, Ireti Kingibe, stated this ahead of the kilishi heritage food tourism festival; a halal economy marketplace commodity that is celebrated across Africa.
Kingibe also emphasised that the initiative would foster intra-African trade.
“The Kilishi Kulture Africa Initiative serves as a unique tool to accelerate the halal economy potential for cultural diplomacy, promoting intra-African trade and unlocking economic opportunities through our shared culinary heritage.
“By connecting African nations through food tourism, we not only celebrate our cultural richness but also drive regional collaboration for food security and economic growth across the continent, by creating pathways to mobilise market-driven investment mechanisms for sustainable development,” she said.
The Lead Managing Partner and Green Marketplace Development, Victor Agih, in a statement, yesterday, said the initiative was to celebrate and promote the ‘biggest and greenest’ kilishi heritage food tourism festival; a halal economy marketplace commodity, that is celebrated across Africa.
Agih added that the festival is a sustainable food security programme of the Pan-African Foodmanitarian Culture Marketplace Carnival, powered by an integrated Pan-African food tourism and travel marketplace.
“The initiative promotes Africa’s rich food heritage through kilishi heritage food festivals across Nigeria and the broader African continent, with the goal of accelerating economic opportunities, enhancing national productivity, and building a united front to tackle food security challenges.”
He said as a symbol of cultural heritage and culinary excellence, kilishi embodies the essence of Africa’s shared food history.
He said: “In the spirit of shared heritage, the marketplace festival is poised to feature an intra Africa Kilishi Highway across 100 cities in Africa, including Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt Accra, Johannesburg, Abidjan, Lome and Cairo, among others.
“This Pan-African food Heritage Integration festival will highlight the economic potential of African heritage foods, empower local communities, promote regional collaboration in food production and tourism.
“The Kilishi Kulture Africa Festival is also situated to launch the first sustainable finance food tourism eco-token in the world to innovate green marketplace and impact investment for community driven ecosystem conservation projects across Africa.
“The ‘Chop2green Africa’ eco-token is structured to incentivize eco-citizen foodies to activate 10 million kilishi eco-tokens across 100 cities in Africa to generate one billion ‘Food2Green’ eco-pledges to plant one billion trees across Africa.
“The initiative is backed by a number of strategic business and policy partnerships to drive its mandate.
“Lagos State is proud to be an official frontline partner to this initiative, as it aligns with our commitment to promoting cultural heritage integration, boosting green economy development, and driving the culture and creative economy engines of growth through food tourism value chains to guarantee opportunities for local communities.”