Investment banker, Olutoyin Ayoade, has urged the Federal Government to ease visa procurement for foreigners attending cultural festivals, saying stringent visa processes are scaring investors away from Nigeria.
Prince Ayoade, the standard bearer of Akinoso Ruling House in Owu Kingdom, who spoke at the 2026 Odun Omo Olowu Festival in Abeokuta, said government should introduce 30- to 60-day cultural visas for tourists coming for festivals like Odun Omo Olowu, Calabar Carnival, Argungu and Osun-Osogbo.
Akinoso, in a statement on Monday, said culture could become a major foreign exchange earner like in Brazil if government supported selected festivals nationwide.
“Yes, we’ve seen the effect in Brazil of this kind of cultural events and we’ve also seen the effect in Calabar, Nigeria.
The government needs to support a lot of these events because for countries like Brazil, you find out that the inflow from cultural events like this actually have a multiplier effect on the economy. It’s a means of foreign exchange earner for some of these countries. So, we can do the same in Nigeria,” he said.
He said potential is enormous if government empowers the ministry in charge of cultural development with funding, and ensures security and transportation standards.
The potential is enormous if government focuses on investing in cultural events and ensures that they provide security for foreigners coming into the country, ensures that those standards are standard, ensures that transportation is standard as well to ensure that people can move around easily without harassment. Once we can put this in place,” the inflow will be massive, he added.
On security, he said policing and security architecture must be improved.
”This means that our policing needs to be improved upon. People should be able to come in without fear of kidnapping and without the fear of robbery. At the same time, our transportation system needs to be developed to ensure that foreigners can move around without any harassment, they can enjoy themselves,” he said.
Prince Ayoade described Odun Omo Olowu as a global economic event.
By: Arinze Nwafor
