Fadina rolls out structured cultural economy plan to tackle youth unemployment
Maureen Aguta
In a strategic push to convert Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage into structured economic capital, the President of the Association of Tourism Practitioners of Nigeria (ATPN), Prince Femi Fadina, has launched the ATPN National Youth Cultural Initiative — a national framework designed to reposition culture as a viable engine for youth wealth creation.
The initiative, unveiled in Lagos before tourism stakeholders, youth leaders and cultural advocates, marks what industry players describe as a deliberate shift from informal creative participation to institutionalised cultural entrepreneurship.
Fadina said the programme was conceived to move culture beyond ceremonial celebration and embed it within Nigeria’s formal economic architecture.
“Our vision is clear,” he declared at the launch. “To institutionalise cultural entrepreneurship as the structured pathway for youth economic empowerment and generational wealth creation.”
At the heart of the initiative is a skills-to-enterprise model targeting young Nigerians across the country.
Participants will receive vocational training in heritage tourism, cultural content development, identity-based product design, and enterprise governance. Organisers say the goal is to create scalable, investment-ready cultural businesses rather than subsistence-level creative activity.
Tourism analysts note that Nigeria’s cultural economy remains largely informal despite its enormous potential in festivals, crafts, indigenous fashion, cuisine, storytelling and historical tourism. By introducing performance benchmarks, governance structures and business incubation pathways, ATPN is seeking to transform scattered creative efforts into bankable ventures capable of attracting funding and generating sustainable jobs.
Stakeholders at the event described the initiative as timely, especially amid mounting youth unemployment and growing calls to diversify Nigeria’s economic base beyond oil revenues. They argue that structured cultural enterprise could serve as a bridge between identity preservation and economic productivity.
Fadina emphasised that culture must be treated as infrastructure — not nostalgia.
“When culture is properly structured, measured and governed, it becomes an economic engine,” he said. “It creates jobs, preserves identity and builds generational wealth.”
The ATPN president also stressed that the programme would adopt measurable impact indicators, including enterprise formation rates, revenue growth, youth employment figures and export potential of identity-driven products.
Industry observers believe that if effectively implemented, the initiative could complement national efforts to expand the creative economy and strengthen sustainable tourism development. Nigeria’s vast cultural diversity, they note, offers a competitive advantage in global tourism markets increasingly drawn to authentic heritage experiences.
By repositioning cultural assets as enterprise assets, ATPN is signalling a broader redefinition of how tourism and heritage are perceived within Nigeria’s development strategy.
With the launch of the National Youth Cultural Initiative, ATPN is not merely promoting culture — it is attempting to engineer a structured cultural economy where creativity meets capital, and heritage becomes a catalyst for youth-driven prosperity.