By CALEB AYANSINA

FEDERAL Government last week, through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation in conjunction with Romarox Resources Limited launched a N50 million National Tourism Photo competition.

The  mouth watering cash prize contest is also attached with 13 fully equipped photo studios, laptops, ipads and blackberry phones provided to help winners become empowered in their activities in the culture and tourism sectors.

Addressing the Press in Abuja, Managing Director, Romarox Resources Limited, Rosemary Okeke said the project is meant to excite national conscience and appreciate the huge tourism endowment in Nigeria.

He said: “Oil aside, and other mineral resources, our country is immensely endowed with endless, limitless and broad-based tourism potentials that we make haste to exploit in tandem with the dictates of global trends but from domestic point of view. That our country is blessed is no longer news. What is news is for us to harness and position this wealth for national interest and general empowerment.”

To achieve this aim, she explained that Romarox Resources in full collaboration has arranged to promote countrywide appreciation of our tourism landscape through a coordinated National Tourism Photo Competition to among other things; awaken the consciousness of Nigerians to these endowments, Reduce unemployment and empower the youth.

She added: “We believe that the time has come for less talk and more works to begin in the tourism industry especially now that technology has created seamless opportunities to capture and store for posterity our landscape, and tourism potentials for now and future generations. With the advent of camera-based technology, the task has been simplified for us to reach out to the remotest parts of Nigeria and click on these national wonders, landscape, artifacts, historical relics, ecosystem, mountains, rocks, festivals, cultural activities etc and present them to the world through this competition.

“This activity seeks to add to tourism development and youth entrepreneurship in these times of youth restiveness in our environs. Tourism promotes peace and has served as bridge to peace all over the world. Here we can make it work for us.”

The Project Manager, Mr. Caesar Okeke explained that the competition is on Public-Private Partnership, PPP, with a view to encourage entrepreneurship among the populace, calling on Nigerians to avail themselves of the opportunity.