Nigerian entrepreneur and tourism investor Keji Giwa, Founder and CEO of Giwa Gardens Water Park and Digital Landlords, has outlined a vision for unlocking Nigeria’s proposed $100 billion tourism economy, emphasising the importance of private-sector investment, infrastructure development and the mobilisation of organised diaspora capital.
Speaking recently on CNBC Africa’s Power Lunch West Africa with the topic ‘Will Nigeria Unlock $100bn Tourism Economy?’, Giwa joined the discussion surrounding the Nigerian Ministry of Tourism’s backing of a 100-day tourism calendar designed to bring the country’s festivals, concerts and cultural events together on a single digital platform.
With the Detty December season approaching, the initiative seeks to improve the visibility and coordination of tourism activities, creating opportunities for greater visitor participation, private investment and economic growth.
For Giwa, however, the opportunity extends beyond promoting events and attracting seasonal visitors. Nigeria must develop the physical infrastructure, investment structures and commercially sustainable destinations required to turn tourism demand into long-term economic value.
His vision centres on a simple principle: Nigeria must move beyond promoting its tourism potential and begin investing systematically in the assets that will allow the industry to grow.
The 100-day tourism calendar: Turning visibility into economic value
The Federal Government-backed 100-day tourism calendar is designed to bring together festivals, concerts, cultural celebrations, exhibitions and other tourism experiences across Nigeria.
A coordinated calendar can help visitors discover destinations, plan their trips and make bookings in advance. For tourism operators, greater visibility can support customer acquisition, improve demand forecasting and create opportunities to develop packages that combine accommodation, entertainment, transportation and recreational experiences.
However, Giwa’s wider investment philosophy highlights the importance of converting this increased visibility into actual commercial activity. A successful tourism calendar must ultimately support real businesses, encourage repeat visits, improve the utilisation of existing facilities and attract investment into new destinations.
For Nigeria to build a sustainable tourism economy, the objective must extend beyond filling venues during December to developing destinations capable of attracting visitors throughout the year.
Giwa Gardens: A private-sector example of Nigeria’s tourism potential
Giwa Gardens Water Park, developed by Giwa in Sangotedo, Lekki, provides a practical example of the opportunities and challenges facing Nigeria’s tourism industry.
The major family recreational destination represents a substantial private investment in Nigeria’s leisure and hospitality economy, offering water attractions, swimming pools, recreational facilities and family entertainment.
For Giwa, the ambition is not simply to operate a water park but to develop an integrated tourism destination capable of supporting complementary hospitality, accommodation, entertainment and recreational services.
The company’s expansion plans include additional resort facilities, improvements to the visitor experience and increased operational capacity. These investments are intended to strengthen Giwa Gardens’ position as a year-round family tourism destination while supporting employment and commercial opportunities in the surrounding economy.
The infrastructure challenge: Building destinations is only half the investment
Giwa’s experience developing Giwa Gardens illustrates a fundamental challenge facing private tourism investors in Nigeria: the cost of developing and maintaining infrastructure that would ordinarily be supported by public utilities.
Major recreational destinations require reliable electricity, substantial water supplies, accessible roads, effective drainage, security and dependable transportation networks. These additional costs directly affect operating expenses, pricing, profitability and the ability to offer affordable recreational experiences to a broader population.
For Giwa, this underscores the importance of collaboration between government and private investors. When government improves access roads, electricity supply and other public infrastructure, private tourism assets can operate more efficiently, expand their capacity and potentially attract greater numbers of visitors.
The wider opportunity is to develop tourism corridors in which public infrastructure and private investment reinforce one another.
Detty December: From a seasonal celebration to a sustainable tourism economy
Nigeria’s Detty December season has become an important period for entertainment, hospitality, travel and social activity, attracting domestic visitors and Nigerians returning from abroad.
For tourism developers such as Giwa, the opportunity is to translate seasonal demand into long-term investment and repeat customer activity.
Rather than concentrating solely on concerts and nightlife, Nigeria can develop a broader visitor economy that includes family recreation, resorts, cultural tourism, wellness, sporting activities, conferences and premium hospitality.
A sustainable tourism economy cannot depend entirely on one festive season. The longer-term objective is to create destinations that remain commercially active across multiple seasons, supporting more consistent employment, investment returns and economic activity.
Diaspora capital: Connecting international wealth with credible Nigerian tourism assets
Beyond tourism promotion and infrastructure, Giwa’s broader vision focuses on mobilising organised diaspora capital into productive Nigerian assets.
Through Digital Landlords, he is working to develop investment opportunities in real estate, hospitality and recreational infrastructure, with Giwa Gardens and The Carnelian representing major components of his development portfolio.
The Carnelian, a 21-storey oceanfront residential and recreational development in Victoria Island, forms part of this strategy to develop premium physical assets within Lagos’s expanding coastal development corridor.
Giwa believes that Nigerians living abroad can play a significant role in financing the next generation of tourism destinations, hospitality facilities and recreational developments. However, attracting this capital requires commercially viable opportunities, transparent structures, credible developers, appropriate governance and clear investor protections.
His ambition is to help connect organised diaspora capital with tangible Nigerian assets while working with government and other stakeholders to improve the environment in which those investments operate.
Building an investment ecosystem, not just individual attractions
The central theme of Giwa’s CNBC Africa appearance is the need to connect Nigeria’s tourism ambitions with the practical requirements of building a commercially sustainable industry.
Tourism growth requires coordination across destination development, public infrastructure, private investment, technology, marketing, hospitality and visitor services.
Government initiatives such as the 100-day tourism calendar can improve the visibility of existing attractions and encourage greater participation in the tourism economy. Private developers must complement those efforts by investing in quality destinations, delivering reliable customer experiences and expanding the country’s accommodation and recreational capacity.
At Giwa Gardens, the focus is on developing and expanding a major family tourism destination. At The Carnelian, the objective is to create premium residential and recreational infrastructure that contributes to Lagos’s expanding hospitality and lifestyle economy. Through Digital Landlords, the wider ambition is to develop credible investment opportunities that can attract organised private and diaspora capital into productive Nigerian assets.
From a $100 billion ambition to a sustainable tourism industry
Nigeria’s $100 billion tourism ambition reflects efforts to diversify economic activity, attract investment and strengthen the contribution of tourism and related industries to national development.
For Giwa, the challenge is to translate that ambition into measurable progress. The development of tourism destinations must be accompanied by improvements in accessibility, power supply, visitor services, investment confidence and the commercial infrastructure required to support sustained growth.
The 100-day tourism calendar represents an opportunity to strengthen coordination and promote Nigeria’s cultural and recreational offerings to a wider audience. However, the long-term economic benefits will depend on whether increased visitor interest translates into actual bookings, higher spending, repeat tourism activity, new investment and employment.
Through Giwa Gardens, The Carnelian and Digital Landlords, Giwa intends to continue contributing to the development of productive physical assets that can support Nigeria’s tourism and hospitality economy.
His broader vision is to build a bridge between organised diaspora capital, credible Nigerian assets and government policy, creating opportunities for private investment to complement national development priorities.
As Nigeria prepares for the 2026 Detty December season, the conversation is shifting from the country’s tourism potential to the practical investments and partnerships required to realise it.
For Giwa, the path towards a $100 billion tourism economy is not simply about attracting more visitors. It is about building the destinations, infrastructure, businesses and investment ecosystem that give those visitors compelling reasons to come, spend, return and invest.
