COPA Lagos promotes tourism with beach cleanup

Kinetic Sports, organisers of the annual beach tournament, COPA Lagos, last week mobilised Nigerians from all walks of life for a cleanup of Elegushi Beach in Lekki.

The exercise which has become a part of the yearly COPA Lagos calendar is aimed at conserving the beach and encouraging cleanliness in the environment as a way of preserving marine life.

About 150 people took part in the cleanup exercise, including celebrities, staff of Kinetic Sports and top officials from corporate sponsors of COPA Lagos including FCMB, Pepsi, Wakanow and Hero; with SuperSport and Cool FM as partners.

Speaking during the exercise, Samson Adamu, Managing Director, Kinetic Sports, noted that the cleanup exercise was one of the corporate social responsibility activities for COPA Lagos. He disclosed that the target for this year was to collect at least 750kg of trash during the exercise, with each participant required to collect at least 15kg of trash.  The target was, however, surpassed with the participants collecting 772kg of trash.

“Presently, there are millions of kilogrammes of trash on ocean beaches around the world, thus necessitating a need to constantly clean up our beaches. This is what conservationists around the world are saying, and we are heeding that call, while also calling on other Nigerians to join in because it is a necessity.

“Our major aim of establishing the annual COPA Lagos event is to encourage more Nigerians to embrace the beach culture and attract foreigners to our beaches, thereby growing the country’s revenue from tourism. Nigeria is blessed with lots of beautiful beaches, which can become major tourist attractions like they have in Miami and other places. But the fact remains that these beaches are dirty, and there is no way we can attract visitors to these beaches if they should remain in their present state,” he said.