Nigeria Has Huge Tourism Potential But Lack Infrastructure, HATMAN president

The president of the Hospitality & Tourism Management Association of Nigeria (HATMAN), Mallam Aliyu Badaki Ajayi, has disclosed that despite the huge tourism potential dominant across the states infrastructure deficit has been a major problem impeding the growth of successful businesses in Nigeria, the tourism sector inclusive.

This is even as he called on the National Universities Commission and relevant agencies to hasten up on the accreditation of tourism and hospitality-related courses in tertiary institutions in order to enhance manpower development.

In an interview with LEADERSHIP Friday in Abuja, he said that the non-availability of well-equipped departments for students studying Hospitality and Tourism in higher institutions was impacting negatively on the sector as the graduates form the bulk of the professional workforce.

“The provision of infrastructure is one of the basic responsibilities of government and where the private sector assumes that responsibility, there should be commensurate incentives,” he said.

He described tourism as a multi-billion dollars sector that had been lying fallow for many years, maintaining that the association was eagerly waiting for the National Assembly to enact an enabling law and provide a conducive environment for tourism managers to optimise its potential.

Ajayi recalled that the G20 Heads of State in 2012 recognised tourism as a driver of growth and development as well as the sector with the potential to spur global economic recovery. He enjoined President Muhammdu Buhari to urgently intervene in the amendment of the Tourism Act, saying that the barrage of security threats from the Boko Haram militants, and kidnapping, was a clog in the wheel of progress in the industry. He further revealed that the World Bank Tourism Intervention Fund that would have boosted activities in the sector was inaccessible due to stringent conditions attached to the fund, regretting that most hotels run on generators daily which has led to an increase in their overhead costs.

He added, “There are a lot of bureaucracies that up until date nobody has accessed the fund. Even if you have any project to establish under tourism, it is usually an uphill task to get the bank to respond to your request.”

source: Leadership newspaper