Friday, July 4, 2025
Nigeria and Saint Lucia created history on July 2nd, 2025, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at boosting their bilateral collaboration in tourism, the creative industries, and investments. This MOU was featured as part of the official state visit of the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to the Caribbean Island State of Saint Lucia. This collaboration ushers in the new era of collaboration between the Caribbean and Africa aimed at leveraging the strengths of two countries to propel the development of the economy, cultural exchange, and the growth of the creative industries.
A Vision for Strategic Cooperation
The MOU lays out several key areas for cooperation between the two countries. These include efforts to promote tourism, enhance the creative industries, and create opportunities for shared economic development. Specifically, the MOU focuses on the following:
Tourism Enhancement: Saint Lucia, with its world-renowned tourism model, will support Nigeria in developing its own tourism strategies. The focus will be on creating a Community Tourism Program, improving hospitality training, and sharing best practices on tourism standards. This collaboration aims to boost Nigeria’s tourism sector, which has vast untapped potential, by implementing sustainable tourism practices and increasing global tourist engagement.
Creative Industries Development: Nigeria, recognized globally for its vibrant creative sectors, will collaborate with Saint Lucia to share expertise in areas such as Nollywood (Nigeria’s thriving film industry), Afrobeats music, fashion, and storytelling. In return, Saint Lucia will showcase its cultural offerings, including its renowned jazz and arts festivals, which have gained international recognition for their eclectic mix of musical and artistic performances. This partnership will see the two nations co-develop initiatives that will showcase their respective cultural strengths on the global stage.
Cultural Exchanges and Festival Participation: Both countries will engage in various cultural exchanges aimed at enriching their respective creative landscapes. Joint participation in major cultural events, such as the Lagos Fashion Week in Nigeria and the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival, will allow for deeper artistic collaboration. Nigerian artists and musicians will have the opportunity to participate in Saint Lucia’s prestigious festivals, while Saint Lucian artists will showcase their work in Nigeria, further promoting cross-cultural appreciation.
Capacity Building and Skill Development: A significant component of the MOU is the establishment of training programs and workshops designed to enhance skills in areas like music production, sound engineering, cultural heritage preservation, and artisanal craft. These training programs will be tailored to empower the youth and creative professionals in both countries, equipping them with the tools necessary to thrive in an increasingly competitive global market.
This partnership, framed by an initial one-year agreement, will be managed by a Joint Committee tasked with overseeing the implementation of a five-year work plan. This plan will be designed to ensure that both nations achieve tangible outcomes in tourism development and creative industry innovation, while also tracking the impact of cultural exchanges and economic partnerships.
Rebuilding Ancestral Ties Through Culture
The signing ceremony was attended by high-ranking officials from both nations, with Nigeria’s Minister of Tourism, Culture, and the Creative Economy, Barrister Hannatu Musa Musawa, emphasizing the historic nature of the agreement. She described the MOU as the dawn of a new era in Africa-Caribbean relations, underscoring the shared heritage between Nigeria and Saint Lucia, which have both historically been influential in the global cultural scene. She highlighted Nigeria’s dominance in creative industries such as Nollywood, music, and fashion, alongside Saint Lucia’s expertise in the tourism sector.
For Saint Lucia, the MOU is a formal recognition of the strong cultural and historical connections with Nigeria. Saint Lucia’s Minister for Tourism, Culture, and the Creative Industries, Dr. Ernest Hilaire, described the agreement as a “formal reconnection” between peoples separated by history but united by shared cultural roots. Saint Lucia has long enjoyed the influence of Nigerian talent, particularly in the music and arts scene, and this new agreement offers a structured framework to deepen these ties through collaboration and mutual cultural engagement.
Benefits for Both Nations
The MOU is expected to yield substantial benefits for both Nigeria and Saint Lucia, each of which has unique assets to offer. For Nigeria, the collaboration offers an opportunity to share its rich cultural assets—especially in music, film, fashion, and art—while learning from Saint Lucia’s success in developing sustainable tourism practices. For Saint Lucia, the partnership offers a chance to tap into the growing African market, leveraging the global popularity of Nigerian music and cinema to attract more visitors and cultural exchanges.
The creative industries, often referred to as the “Orange Economy,” are expected to be one of the primary drivers of economic growth for both countries. By facilitating collaborations between Nigerian artists and Saint Lucian creatives, the MOU has the potential to create new economic opportunities, stimulate job creation, and elevate both nations’ profiles on the international stage.
A Symbol of Global Unity and Shared Heritage
The significance of this partnership extends beyond mere economic and cultural cooperation. At its heart, the agreement symbolizes the growing unity among countries in the Global South, particularly those with shared African diasporic roots. By leveraging their complementary strengths in tourism and creative industries, Nigeria and Saint Lucia have set a powerful example of how nations from different regions can collaborate for mutual benefit, all while celebrating their shared heritage.
This MOU also serves as a reminder of the enduring ties between Africa and the Caribbean. It seeks to foster greater people-to-people connections and shared cultural experiences, providing a platform for younger generations to explore their African-Caribbean identity while contributing to the growth of both nations’ creative and tourism sectors.
Moving Forward
The official signing of the MOU is near, and the two countries are already engaged in specific projects of youth exchanges and bilateral development of creative economy projects. The cooperation of Saint Lucia and Nigeria has the potential of reinforcing the cultural identity of the two states and also serves as an inspiration for the rest of the Global South. This is also the perfect time for the continent of Africa and the region of the Caribbean to unite and marshal resources and unlock new opportunities for development and growth economically and culturally.
This collaboration in its fullest sense could open the way toward deeper regional cooperation, inviting future projects to grow beyond borders with the goal of fostering mutual respect and celebrating the common heritage of the African diaspora.
References: Nigeria’s Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism, and the Creative Economy; Government of Saint Lucia – Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and the Creative Industries; African Union Commission
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