Africa’s ‘fastest-growing travel company’ launches in the UK

Africa’s fastest growing OTA, Wakanow, will provide a one-stop-shop for travel to Africa, offering a diverse range of competitively-priced flights and hotels for key destinations including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Seychelles, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Uganda, DRC, and Gambia. 

As the only online travel agent selling Africa run by Africans, Wakanow’s mission is to extend the African warm welcome to its customers and provide hassle-free travel to destinations across the continent. As an online and offline hybrid company with offices throughout Africa the firm offers on-the-ground support including airport transfers, guides, visa-processing and protocols.

The name, Wakanow, comes from the Nigerian pidgin English expression meaning ‘Go Now’.  Sitting under the Wakanow umbrella is DestinationsAfrica – a specialist booking platform aggregating holiday packages (hotels, tours and transfers) to more than 23 African destinations. The packages cover key themes including romantic getaways, spiritual holidays, cultural trips, wellness and spas, safari and adventure.

Wakanow is the brainchild of Nigerians Obinna Ekezie – a former NBA professional basketball player – and Ralph Tamuno.  Founded in Nigeria in 2008 Wakanow is the first African travel agency to aggregate flights, hotels, visa procurement and packaged travel more under one platform. It has since gone on to be Africa’s fastest-growing travel company.

The UK is Wakanow’s sixth market, after Nigeria, Dubai, Ghana, Kenya, and the US.  Further expansion is planned for 2017 in Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, Ivory coast and Tanzania.

Wakanow Founder and Group Managing Director, Obinna Ekezie, said: “We are delighted to be launching into the UK market, a decision which follows our insight that an increasing number of bookings on our Nigerian portal were coming from the UK.  It is therefore a natural progression for Wakanow to extend into this market and we are delighted to be able to offer something different to UK customers when it comes to travelling to Africa.  Through DestinationsAfrica we will leverage our vast knowledge of the African space and wealth of untapped destinations to create exclusive travel products that offer fresh experiences for our customers.”