Ekiti Opens Doors to Tourism Investors as Ikogosi Warm Springs Draws 43,000 Visitors
Nigeria's Ekiti State is making a determined push to transform tourism into a genuine engine of economic growth, inviting private sector investment while reporting impressive visitor numbers at its flagship attraction. Speaking at the 22nd Akwaaba African Travel Market in Lagos, the Director General of the Ekiti State Bureau of Tourism Development, Wale Ojo-Lanre, presented the state as one of the country's most naturally endowed yet underexploited destinations, with fresh opportunities for operators and investors across the continent.
The state's identity is rooted in its landscape. The very name Ekiti derives from "Oke ti," meaning mountainous terrain, and according to Ojo-Lanre almost every corner of the state holds some form of attraction, from rocks and waterfalls to cultural and spiritual sites. He memorably described Ekiti as the only place in southwestern Nigeria where visitors can "work, eat, dance and do a party in the cloud," a nod to its elevated topography and the potential for distinctive high-altitude experiences that few Nigerian destinations can match.
Among the more unusual drawcards highlighted were a palm tree bearing 42 heads, a rock formation containing 42 natural apartments, and the celebrated Ikogosi Warm Springs, where warm and cold waters flow side by side. That site alone attracted more than 43,000 visitors within a three-month period, a figure that signals real commercial momentum for agents considering packaged domestic and regional itineraries.
Ekiti's cultural credentials run equally deep. Ojo-Lanre positioned the state as the source of the Osun River and a foundational centre of Yoruba traditional religion, with historical links to Ifa, Osun, Esu and Ogun traditions. "Ekiti is the source, while what they are doing in Osogbo is the leg," he said, drawing a direct line between the state and the internationally recognised Osun-Osogbo heritage. Add to that a strong educational legacy, including an active planetarium at Afe Babalola University in Ado-Ekiti, plus early twentieth-century Catholic missionary history in Usi-Ekiti, and the destination offers a rare blend of nature, faith, learning and culture. Linguistic homogeneity across the state further strengthens its cohesive cultural identity.
The commercial philosophy driving this campaign will interest travel professionals across sub-Saharan Africa. Ojo-Lanre credited Governor Biodun Oyebanji with a hard-headed, economics-first approach, noting that Ekiti became the first state under the current administration to produce a formal tourism policy before developing its master plan. Crucially, the government sees itself as an enabler rather than an operator. "The governor has no business being in the tourism business. The business of tourism belongs to the private sector," he said, an unusually clear invitation to investors in hospitality, transport, entertainment and destination management.
He also urged the industry to rethink how success is measured. Gate fees, he argued, capture only a fraction of tourism's true value. The real return flows through hotels, restaurants, transport operators, retailers and local artisans. Illustrating the point, he cited a four-day golf tournament in the state that drew roughly 280 players, each spending at least N130,000, generating over N100 million in estimated local economic activity. A major religious gathering in Okemesi-Ekiti attended by Pastor Enoch Adeboye produced similar ripple effects across accommodation, catering and transport.
Infrastructure and safety remain the decisive variables. Several roads are under rehabilitation, and Ojo-Lanre pointed to the state's security profile and ease of doing business as competitive advantages. His broadest definition of the market may prove the most instructive for trade partners: "If you are not going to a town for a permanent job, you are a tourist." As MICE, faith-based, sports and business travel continue expanding across Africa, destinations building integrated ecosystems around such visitors are likely to capture the strongest growth in the years ahead.
