By Micheal Jegede (In Abuja)
The Director-General of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), Alhaji Nura Sani Kangiwa, has said that if properly explored, harnessed, and well managed, the Nigerian Travel Tourism and Hospitality industry has the potential to tackle unemployment and curb the menace of insecurity bedeviling the country.
Kangiwa made the remark when he received Abimbola Ogunlusi, the Managing Director/CEO of QMDCI Hospitality and Tourism Institute who came on a courtesy visit at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja.
According to a statement by the Director of Media and Public Relations of NIHOTOUR, Mr. Ahmed Sule, the DG said the tourism industry is a very vast and versatile industry that cuts across several skills and trades that can offer jobs to millions of unemployed youths. He also stated that can stop the young people from being ready tools in the hands of men of the underworld, who use them to perpetrate acts of destruction and acrimony in the land.
He said Nigeria is blessed with abundant tourism resources waiting to be tapped and utilized for the socio-economic good and benefits of the people, noting that it is about time Nigerians realizes the enormous economic benefits inherent in the tourism industry with the view to keying into it for job creation and poverty alleviation.
The Director-General promised to partner and collaborate with the relevant stakeholders in both public and private sectors, individuals and organizations such as the QMDCI Hospitality and Tourism Institute, in the efforts to impact skills and knowledge-based professional competence to youths in the promotion of the Travel Tourism and Hospitality trades as a career for self-employment and self-reliance.
Earlier, Bimbo Ogunlusi stated that her visit to the DG was to solicit for the Institute’s support, cooperation and collaboration in the effort to take skill acquisition training to a substantial number of youths across the country. She said that her Institute is planning to host a National Conference on Hospitality and Tourism Industry to examine operational practices with the view to identifying areas of deficiencies in the industry for both practitioners and for employer-employee relationship.
Ogunlusi expressed her sincere delight with the warm reception accorded her by the NIHOTOUR boss, noting that it was a sign of the establishment of a long-lasting, positive, and mutually beneficial relationship between the two Institutes. She hoped to learn and gain more from the agency’s wealth of experience as the apex public sector training Institute in the Travel-Tourism and Hospitality industry of the country. NNL.
