It is shocking to see how empty the place is. Did they do a thorough feasibility study before building Tinapa?

http://www.greatnigeria.tv/video/72/Is-Tinapa-Failing

Custom frustrated it- dont you know the story?

Yes, I read that in the papers but given the number of shops now open I would have expected to see a lot more people, even if they are Cross Riverians only.

Has any one been there recently?

depends how recent- was there last year June and i saw a lot of shops ready to be opened. I heared many of them have opened now. Dubai wasnt built in a day though.

True. What were the prices of the goods like when you went? Were they competitive enough to entice people who would normally shop in Dubai? There has to be something that would attract people from other parts of Nigeria and divert Dubai-bound customers to Tinapa, I must say, I can't see what it is.

I wouldn't call Tinapa a failure just yet. When I went home this christmas, I had the opportunity to visit the place. I was told it's usually a lot busier that time of the year because of the carnival. There's a lot of empty stores but Tmart (Don D's walmart-like store) was really busy. Surprisingly, the prices were not bad even though they were all in dollars ( I wondered why prices had to be in dollars sha.)

Apart from Tmart, they have Vlisco, another fabric store (can't remember the name), a skin care store, an arcade, an art store (lovely cutural artifacts), a furniture store, two banks, an event hall and I think three others stores that have been bought but not occupied yet. May and Baker Pharmaceuticals have acquired a store I hear.

The amusement side was cool. Love the pools and the water slide. My only major problem was that there was no food court (serving correct food o no be pof pof, meat pie and all that nonsense). My friends and I spent a whole day at Tinapa. Tmart is the ish. It's well stocked from liquor (correct wines o), toileteries and bathroom stuff, shoes (even boots o. lol), clothes e.t.c

Amber Tinapa isn't bad too. Lot's of guest when I went in xmas. I hope the place would pick up soon. I'll be going home again this December and I can't wait to visit Vlisco and Tmart : )


Like the Cnn guy correctly put it, the location is also a problem but not just because it's in the the Niger Delta but for normal Cross Riverians as well. It's too far from the city especially for those that don't have cars. There are no taxis or buses there. Dem no come get Okada again for Calabar so man no fit trek na.

Maybe it needs more time to produce the desired result. let's not conclude anything nagative yet.

Why are we so narrow minded in Nigeria. If this were in the US and a major project is in trouble Pres. Obama would fly over to try to give it a boost to create/save jobs and give the local/nation economy a lift but in Nigeria the president and ministers don't care unless they personally benefit from it or maybe if it is in their own states. This is what frastrates me about Nigeria

If Goodluck and patience Jonathan were to fly over to tinapa for a few days, instead of going to Dubai, it would help a lot. Can you imagine how much of a boost the place would get if Jonathan decided to host an Ecowas or AU summit there? Please Naija leaders, broaden your thinking and stop being so parochial.

It was Donald Duke's vision. Imagine if Donald Duke was there for another four years, he would have ran faster with his vision. I don't think Tinapa will fail, I believe it will just take time to attain its potential.

I supported Duke when he was running for the PDP presidential ticket in 2007; however, I am now having serious doubts about his financial dealings while he was in office and I don't think he has been able to clear the allegations of corruption made against him. How did he acquire T-Mart and how did his wife acquire the Women and children's hospital in Calabar and why was it sold to her in the first place.

See this "Police arrest Donald Duke", http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5574305-146/police_arrest_donald_duke__.csp

the tinapa story is pathetic, it was a brillant idea by donald duke, but it's been fustarted by the cartel of nigerian importers and also the nigeriaan custom service people.some people dont really understand the high level power intrigues that go on in nigeria today, whatever beautiful business idea you come up with,some people will fustrate it.
tinapa was going to affect business positively for nigeria and cross river,definately people wud prefer going to tinapa instead of going to dubai to shop,bcoz of the duty free status.but some people wont want this to happen,as it would spoil their business

Tinapa,what a concept!

we nigerians have to be positive and have confidence in our own endeavours.All of us must work to make tinapa
a success.

@tefund, I like your positive approach. How do you suggest we do this, i.e. work to make tinapa a success?

The forces that were against Tinapa are now out of power. Hopefully, Jonathan would ease the bottlenecks that Customs is using to frustrate the project and Tinanpa would pick up. Tinapa built up so much momentum and would have been a massive hit if Donald Duke stayed on in power. Infact since Duke left power, Cross River state began experiencing a huge downturn. Obudu that used to attract tonnes of visitors is no longer doing so.

Tinapa is about being sub-let to a consortium from U.A.E for management. Give it some time, it will surely flourish.

Wrong planning. I don't agree because customs frustrated it, then its justified to be a failure. That is supposed to have been sorted out by the feasibility studies. $450m could have helped build industries for the good people of Cross River State. Why didn't they build in phases?

Right now they are stuck, I think they have a marketing problem instead. By the way how many movies have been produced at the Tinapa studios? Is that a custom problem too?
They have to come up with ways to re-brand the location, I hate the Dubai tag why not be Tinapa. Improve electricity in Calabar to attract businesses, hence more people. What is unique about this place? Is there a history museum? why not liaise with the Museum commission to create something different. Biafra Museum, craft museum. Transportation? can I get a days flight to this location from Lagos and back the same day. Is there a Tinapa magazine or journal? Website?

@Insight04, don't be fooled by these big names "consortium from U.A.E for management", yeah right? Nigerians are too quite to over-rate things from abroad. This so called consortium may be a small timer in the UAE but they'll try to spin it as if it is a major conglomerate. Why didn't they give us the name so we could investigate the yearly turnover of the company.

If I told you a consortium from Aba, Abia state was coming to take over, would you get excited? I don't think so, well it shouldn't be different for any company from abroad, until you know for sure that they are a reputable company. 419ers de abroad too.

@kcjazz, na true word you talk. In addition I think the problem with Tinapa, as Imoke said in the video (http://www.greatnigeria.tv/video/72/Is-Tinapa-Failing), there is too much state goverment involvement. Governments have no business in ventures like this. It should have been 100% owned by the private sector but encourage and stimulated by the goverment. I think that was Duke's big mistake.

I think so many things contributed to the problem in Tinapa.

The venture should have be a private own venture in order to have a proper management and maintenance. The issue of price tag in Dollar is disgraceful indeed I dont know when some people will change from all these kind of complexity because Britain will not be so sick to tag price in dollar, yen or even euro instead they will just give the equivalent so also America will not do that.

The custome and Police honestly this two forces are a serious cancer in Nigeria skin only a responsible government can stop them not this government of today. The location is a huge detterent to the growth of Tinapa I mean is too remote in Millitant, kidnapping insecure region is a great concern for anybody to risk it lets be honest to ourselves.

I wonder what Lyel Imoke is doing in cross river state to have allow tinapa  fall to an extent of looking for whom to buy it. They say that governor is too slow. Can't he imitate the good work of Donald Duke?

Tinapa is a failed project, it is the proverbial white elephant. It was in-conceived from the start. I have often wondered why Donald Duke is held in such high esteem, he reminds me of all those African leaders who build mammoth white elephant projects for personal grandiosity. The billions spent on Tinapa would have been much better spent of creating Independent Power plants to provide 24 hour electricity to Cross River State in conjunction with international private companies. Donald Duke could have created a real industrial park, encouraging companies to build factories to produce commodities for export. I did my Youth Service in Northern Cross River, still untapped plantations of Cashew Nuts for instance, these are are serious raw materials for export oriented products.

Tinapa seems to have spent too much emphasis on retail parks, trying to encourage Wal-Mart & Harrods (I laugh) to an empty space in the bush far from centre of purchasing population. Even if Wal-Mart came, did they expect people to travel from Lagos to come to shop in Wal-Mart to buy what?? Toilet roll!!

The Cross River State government should act quickly to change the emphasis of Tinapa to export oriented manufacturing, encourage, Chinese, Indian and Brazilian firms with cheap rents, low local state taxes and other incentives to establish manufacturing plants and employ Nigerians. The talk of tax free, etc is a red herring.

tinapa lack capable marketers and web presence,


does it have a website?

@9jabizhelp, yes it does, it is http://tinapa.com.ng/

Is there anyone still interested in this topic? I'm working on a research paper and your comments/suggestions would be most helpful. My research would review the Tinapa project and identify what went wrong as well as provide strategic alternatives to a way-out both from a policy perspective and marketing strategy.