Chiamaka Obuekwe

Chiamaka Obuekwe
She is co-founder and CEO of Social Prefect Tours (which began in 2015 through her blog), an African tourism company which seeks to connect people across the continent through tour guides within Africa, school excursions, group tours and corporate retreats.

Quotes
s a Nigerian tour operating company that promotes African tourism and connects people. We organise group tours, school excursions, corporate retreats, holiday packages and also offer tour guide services within Africa, especially in Nigeria to educate people about the beauty within. We organise affordable tours to encourage Nigerians and even foreigners to explore our rich and diverse cultural heritage as well as our enthralling and beautiful landscapes. Local tourism is very important for any country to grow. Sadly, Nigeria does not take tourism seriously.
 * Nobody owes you anything — Chiamaka Obuekwe

As its CEO, what does your job entail?

I handle the day-to-day running of the company. I oversee the planning of tours, communicate with clients and vendors. I also write about tourism and travel.

What is your work history?

From November 2013 to October 2015, I worked with Jumia as its social media and public relations specialist. From December 2015 to February 2016, I worked with another e-commerce firm called Mumsfave.com as the social media manager. I quit the job to manage Social Prefect Tours fully.

What stirred your interest in tourism?

I fell in love with local tourism in 2014, when I travelled to some parts of Nigeria purely for leisure and discovered that there are lots of beautiful destinations in Nigeria. I was really surprised at the lack of awareness of local travel and tourism and I felt such a burning desire to share it. I have always loved to tell stories because I believe it is a great way to reach out to people. Therefore, I started my blog just to document my experiences. In this age of social media, it was not difficult for me to get an audience. People saw the pictures and videos and also read about my experiences online and many of them were fascinated because they did not know that such places existed in Nigeria. Interestingly, people started asking if they could come on these trips and we saw that there was a need for local tourism, especially group tours. Social Prefect Tours was founded in 2015.

Do you have plans of expanding tours beyond Nigeria?

We have already expanded beyond Nigeria. We have organised tours to Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic. Basically, we do tours within West African countries for now but we plan on expanding to other parts of Africa. Our tours are basically to promote African tourism and show the world what Africa has to offer. So, if we ever expand outside Africa, it will be to just a few more countries based on the demands of our clients.

'''What challenges did you face starting up your company? ''' We faced several challenges that every start- up in Nigeria faces. Firstly, advertising was quite a challenge but we scaled that hurdle by making use of social media. We sometimes experience challenges with some of our vendors. As a logistics company, sometimes, their services may not measure up. Also, most of the hotels in Nigeria, especially outside Lagos and Abuja, are not up to standard and that can be quite problematic. Also, the tourist destinations lack suitable infrastructure. Government needs to pay more attention to tourism like it’s done in other countries.

'''How did you meet your business partner? ''' We met when I was working with Jumia. We are both shareholders in the company but I am the chief executive officer while he is the chief operating officer.

How much was your start-up capital?

Sincerely, starting the tour company was more of a zero capital kind of project, except for the N20, 000 which we used in starting the blog. We used more of social capital to start the company, especially social media .We sent out flyers and people started signing up. We had one successful tour after another and here we are today.

Did you get funds or grants from other sources?

No, we did not.

'''What approach should youths take towards work? ''' Youths should be hard-working and they should not feel that the older generation owe them anything. We owe it to ourselves to always aspire to be great and strive to be all that we want to be. We live in a very fast -paced world and a lot of young people are doing great things. With the Internet and all the information that is out there, everyone has equal opportunity to learn and attain various levels of success. There are a lot of innovative things that youths can do. They just need to be hard working.

'''Who are your role models and how have they influenced your work as a social entrepreneur? ''' I admire Mrs. Tara Fela-Durotoye in the area of entrepreneurship and innovation. I also admire Mr.Ikechi Uko, in the area of travel and tourism. They have done well for themselves and have taught me that anything is possible, as long as I am dedicated and put my mind to it. They are both hard-working and I have learnt a great deal from them.

'''What are some of your laudable achievements since you started the company? ''' My partner and I have been invited to speak at several platforms and panels such as TEDx UI, Social Media Week, Handle it Africa conference, Jumia Travel Summit, Nigerian Association of Tour Operators AGM panel, for being one of the young people dedicated to tourism in Nigeria, and many more. We have also worked with some tourism boards like South African Tourism for Indaba 2017, and the Bauchi State Government for the Explore Bauchi campaign. We have also worked and still work with notable telecommunication brands and have also organised tours for several foreign groups and families who are visiting Nigeria for the first time. Among them was a group from the Dangote Foundation and The African Centre, New York. Finally, the emails and messages we receive from people on social media daily about how our work inspires them and how they love what we do, especially with showcasing Africa and organising tours is really amazing and inspires us to want to do more.

'''What advice do you have for youths who aspire to become social entrepreneurs?

''' I will tell them to go for it. The most important thing is passion. If they are not passionate about something, that might cause them to give up easily. However, if they are passionate, do their research well and are good when it comes to handling and understanding people, they would go far in the tourism and hospitality business and any other type of entrepreneurship.
 * https://punchng.com/nobody-owes-you-anything-chiamaka-obuekwe/