The DATCH Citizen Culture Marketplace Festival deploys market-driven mechanisms to strengthen Delta’s cultural economy while creating strategic pathways for inclusive development. It is designed to serve as a stop-gap measure against youth unemployment, social exclusion, and fragmented local economies transforming culture into a driver of resilience, peace, and prosperity.
At the same time, the festival accelerates a Pan-African cultural tourism mobility currency, positioning Delta heritage as an asset in global creative markets. By embedding innovation in cultural trade, creative finance, and heritage-based enterprises, the DATCH Festival contributes to domestic resource mobilization for both the State Creative Economy Fund and the National Tourism Development Fund.
Through this integrated approach, the festival establishes culture as a currency of development, a unifying force for identity, a marketplace for opportunity, and a platform for sustainable financing that powers inclusive growth across the Niger Delta and beyond.
DATCH-Colla 10.0
Engage the DATCH-culture community to co-create future-forward cultural experiences, heritage products, and creative tourism commodities that showcase Delta’s diversity.
Educate creative and tourism communities to rebrand and reposition indigenous cultural diversity as a unifying force for state integration and inter-ethnic peace.
Empower the creative, tourism, and travel industries with DATCH Citizen Culture Ticket Banks for over 1 million DATCH citizens, unlocking new mobility and cultural tourism opportunities.
Ensure facilitation of zero-interest enterprise capital for Delta’s creative and cultural businesses, helping local entrepreneurs scale cultural heritage enterprises in global markets.
Employment opportunities for festival curators, creative operators, travel facilitators, and hospitality solution providers, creating new livelihoods across 25 LGAs.
Enable an eco-citizenship ecolabelling program for the DATCH Festival, ensuring a net-zero cultural footprint for tourism, travel, and hospitality sectors linked to Delta’s heritage economy.
