Travel profile: Blogger and Business specialist, Ufuoma Okumagba

With 25 countries and over 50 cities under her belt, Ufuoma follows her passion for travel and hopes to make travel seem more attainable to people of colour.

Ufuoma Okumagba is a travel blogger known for her colourful adventures to the most beautiful and obscure parts of the world, as well as the vibrant ways she captures her travels.

Four years ago, she quit her well-paying job, left Nigeria to pursue a Masters degree in International Business in Canada, and the opportunity placed her in three countries for a more practical study. This was how she caught the travel bug.

So far, Ufuoma has visited 25 countries on four continents and explored over 50 cities. According to her, her best travel experiences include sand-duning in the deserts of Peru, horseback riding in Cuba’s countryside and exploring the natural hotsprings in Costa Rica.

She is also a firm believer in travelling the world with a full-time job as she navigates all her exciting adventures while being a Business Analyst. In a Q&A session for Zinny Factor, she says: “I am responsible for executing business strategies and passing the company’s key messages across... I’ll be honest, it has not been easy, but when something is a priority, you find a way to make it happen."

Her tips on travelling with a full-time job include: "First, a good salary is important but when negotiating a new role, I also negotiate days off as part of the offer. It is important to have a healthy life outside of work. In my current job, I get 22 days off per year and I always combine it with a statutory holiday. I never stay in a location for more than 5 days. So, if there is a holiday on Monday, I take Friday or Tuesday off for an extra-long weekend. I also try to be a high performer at work and let my output do the talking... Whenever I am at work, I give it a 100 percent, so that when it is time to take off, I can do so with no guilt at all."

She inspires her readers with the adventures and tips she writes about on her blog theufuoma.com.