The tide is turning for Ethiopia’s tourism industry, as the Ethiopian Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently announced it plan to triple the number of foreign visitors, to more than 2.5 million, by 2020, with an ultimate goal of making Ethiopia one of Africa’s top five tourist destinations [by 2020 says a journalist from Daily Mail.

Representatives from Egypt, other African nations and Japan met in Nairobi, Kenya, for the launch of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Summit. According to TICAD’s official website, the conference aims to highlight the importance and urgency of development issues in the African continent, as well as to “promote high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and development partners.”

On Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told an audience of African leaders at the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Kenya’s capital Nairobi that his country will spend $30 billion on infrastructure development, healthcare and education projects in Africa over the next three years:

Tomorrow is the start of the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Nairobi, Kenya. Launched in 1993, TICAD is the key platform to drive Japan’s ongoing development initiatives in Africa. TICAD respects African ownership of its own development path, while tapping into multi-stakeholder partnerships to promote openness.

A ceremony was held at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya on Thursday to bid farewell to 120 Kenyan students who have received scholarships to study in China. The Principal Secretary in the state department of higher education, Professor Colletta Suda said scholarships will boost Kenya's aspirations of expanding access to higher education for the youth.

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi on Wednesday said more needed to be done by the government, private sector and civil society to achieve a “consistent and cohesive” approach when marketing South Africa locally, in the African continent and internationally. Building a national brand depends on nation building and how cohesive we are as a nation. 

As number 16 in the world medal chart in Rio and currently top in Africa, Kenya is in the league of the world’s sports powers. Kenya should fund its nationalist project as part of its sports diplomacy and projection of soft power. There is no reason why gold medallists should not be full ambassadors and remunerated accordingly. The country must consciously and innovatively invest in its sports talents.