
Amaka Amatokwu-Ndekwu is a multi-award winning hospitality and tourism professional.
Over fourteen years as a hospitality expert, consultant, and analyst in Africa and the United States, known for her tenacity, strong drive, passion, and leadership. She is an inspirational industry leader with a demonstrated track record of being results-oriented, a visionary, and change agent.
She has been instrumental in the development of numerous programs aimed at boosting growth and development in Africa’s hospitality and tourism industries. Her experience in the hospitality and tourism industries includes hotel operations, tourism policy analysis, advocacy, negotiations and sales, strategic planning and development of tourism projects, human resource development, training, women empowerment initiatives, and events.
She holds an AMP certificate in business management and marketing from Lagos Business School, a postgraduate certificate in business management from the European School of Economics in London, United Kingdom, a certification in hotel distribution fundamentals from ESSEC Business School, and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Madonna University in Okija, Nigeria. She is a Castell Project Leadership Program alumna from the class of 2019.
She has vast experience in hotel management for both local and international brands.She is the Chairperson and Co-Founder of the African Association of Women in Tourism and Hospitality (AAWTH), as well as the Chairperson, Founder, and Past-President of The Women in Hospitality Nigeria (WIHN). These organizations were founded to serve as a voice of support for all females working in the hospitality and tourism industries, as well as to pioneer changes in gender equality and governance in the hospitality and tourism sectors.
She sits on the board of various hospitality and tourism organizations. She established the prestigious Pyne Awards Africa, which recognizes pioneers in African hospitality and tourism.She is a member of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group’s operational team’s hospitality and tourism sector thematic group. She led the NESG-THITG subcommittee on human capital development and training policies.
Among her other accomplishments, she was a mentor with the Lagos Business School and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women in Business in the United Kingdom, a partner with Interswitch Group on their Merchant Payment Services for hospitality and lifestyle organizations, a course facilitator with the International Security Organization in Switzerland, a member of the Top 100 Founding Volunteer Mentors of the Manatee Mentors Program/App in Basel, Switzerland, as well as an Ambassador of the African Tourism Board.
She has contributed to Africa’s hospitality and tourism industries’ reforms, restructuring, expansion, and social development.
Her impact has earned her Global Recognition, including Top 30 Hospitality Leaders in Nigeria 2018, an award from the Global Leadership Institute; Tourism Hero 2021 from the World Tourism Network; Winner-Women in Leadership Award & 2nd Runner-Up-Outstanding Entrepreneurship Award by the African Tourism Leadership Forum in 2021.
She also has a Global Top 25 Most Inspirational Executives in Travel & Hospitality 2021 and Global Top 20 Hospitality Executives to Watch in 2022 by the International Hospitality Institute USA, Y Naija Top 100 Women in Nigeria 2022, 100 most powerful people in USA & Africa hospitality , recognized as an Amazon of Sports Tourism in Africa and made the list of 100 most inspirational people in global travel and hospitality 2023.
Congratulations!!
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