A new chapter is about to open in the tourism industry following the signing into law of an Act sent to the National Assembly a long time ago. ELEOJO IDACHABA writes on what awaits the sector according to industry players.
For years, the tourism industry that is supposed to be a major driver of revenue for the country had remained a shadow of itself; no thanks to the absence of an enabling legal instrument to enable the sector function like a statutory government agency with revenue generation at the background while not jettisoning growth.
During the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo up till the late Umar Yar’Adua, the sector witnessed phenomenal growth. Unfortunately, the gains were not preserved by subsequent administrations; that was when Otumba Olusegun Runsewe was at the helm of affairs at the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC). His stewardship actually saw Nigeria achieving some successes.
Although not much was achieved in those years, to a large extent, the sector threw Nigeria up for reckoning in so many ways. For instance, that was when the All Nigeria Cultural Festival usually held in Abuja was enunciated even though it was ditched later. Subsequent administrations after then to date have painfully treated the sector with disdain. In fact, one of the conspiracies against the sector was the abrogation of the status of its parent ministry. As a consequence, it was transferred to be supervised by the Ministry of Information that has no semblance with tourism.
As a result of this, tourism remained comatose, placing excuse on lack of enabling act until recently.
In early February 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari appended his signature to the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority Bill and Related Matters, 2022, thereby repealing the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation Act, cap. N.137, laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
With the new bill the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority is expected to develop and promote Nigeria as a travel and tourism destination by encouraging people living in Nigeria to take their holiday in the country while encouraging those abroad to visit Nigeria. By this, the new act is to discourage the culture of Nigerians paying huge foreign currencies for tourism abroad. According to the new bill, the authority shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal and may sue and be sued in its corporate name.
Part of the details states that, “There shall be established a governing board of the authority which shall consist of a part-time chairman who shall be appointed by the president and shall be a person of proven integrity and experience in the field of hospitality, travel and tourism, a director general, two representatives from Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria (FTAN), one member representing public interest who must be a private tourism practitioner and other government agencies like Customs, NIPC, SON, Nigeria Police, NIHOTOUR, Immigration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among others. This development is to take the sector to the next level of effective collaborations, regulations and revenue generation.
The director-general of NTDA, Mr. Folorunsho Coker, said, “The new law is speaking of temporary issues in tourism. It is not a draconian law. It is collaboration between states and the federal government towards driving revenue in the tourism and hospitality industry.
“It is about a tourism trust fund which is now a vehicle in use to invest in tourism assets. We must understand that if the laws are not right, investments will not come in.
“The operation of an old law in a dynamic environment that is constantly changing will not get us to where we want to be. Dubai, South Africa and Kenya amended their laws during Covid-19 pandemic and they thrived, but we did not.
“However, I will do a comprehensive breakdown of the new law and share it with the 36 states. I will invite the 36 commissioners of tourism to Abuja, so that we can sit down, discuss, reach an agreement and take it to the next level.
“If you could recall, fantastic legal frameworks were given to the telecommunication and banking sector and we had positive results. It is time for tourism to flourish with the help of the new law.
“I want to thank those that made the new law possible. NTDC is now NTDA, and it is going to be a different ball game that will sanitise the sector and generate huge revenue to the country.”
This is just as President Muhammadu Buhari has also signed the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) bill into law.
The information was contained in a statement by the special assistant (Technical) to the director general of NIHOTOUR, Joesef Karim.
The law established the institute for training, certification and registration of hospitality, travel and tourism personnel in Nigeria.
Necessity of the new law
Justifying the necessity of an enabling act, head of legal unit of the new NTDA, Mrs. Funebi Otu Umondak, noted that the old law was over 20 year-old, obsolete and not helpful to the agency and the industry.
“We are grateful to Buhari for signing the bill into law. This law now made it possible for collaborations with states, local governments, private sector and international organisations and also made provision for Tourism Fund to help industry players grow and develop the economy. There would also be an alliance that will make tourism more attractive to everyone in the sector.
“What is important and key is the collaboration and partnership with stakeholders to make tourism better and flourish for our great nation.”
Immense benefits
Speaking on the sideline of this development, a tourism expert, Paul Adalikwu, said it has the magic wand to transform the sector for the good of the industry. “As it is, there is no reason why the industry should not experience a shift. It has been redundant for a while because operators and of course potential investors were looking out for areas of potential benefits that would be mutually agreed by all until now. What the drivers of the new law needs now is to create the awareness to attract investors. There are a lot of incentives in the new act that would be beneficial both to tourists, fun seekers, investors and government,” he said.
According to him, what the new act would do to the industry is akin to what the telecommunications act has done to telephony in Nigeria. He, therefore, advised everyone with genuine interest in tourism to partner with NTDC in evolving a new phase for the industry.
New dawn
Another tourism expert, Mr. Ini Akpabio, said over the years, the industry has been the whipping child of the government because it had been left to fend for itself without any sense of direction.
Akpabio, who is the current chairman of Akwa Ibom Tourism Board and former chairman of NANET Suite, Abuja, said regrettably that the former state of the industry is the reason many erstwhile tourism initiatives did not survive few years after their conception.
“I ran a successful tourism outfit in Abuja, but due to lack of enabling environment, making progress became a herculean task such that one needed to rely on bank overdraft to stay afloat, but for how long? I want to believe that we are in for a new deal following this new law,” he said.
Opposition
Before the new Act was signed into law recently by President Buhari, opposition to it had mounted way back in 2017. For instance, a group, Nigeria Hotels Association, had openly expressed its disapproval of the new law.
Mr. Lanre Awoseyin, the president of the association, had in 2017 criticised the Senate’s passage of the bill for an Act to amend the NTDC Act No 81 of 1992.
He had said that the contents of the bill were against the spirit of the constitution of the country, therefore advised President Buhari not to assent the bill, as according to him, the bill proposes that accreditation, registration and grading of hotels should all be handled by the NTDC.
He said that the bill also stated that one per cent of hoteliers’ charges each year would be remitted to the federal government, describing the remittance as outrageous, obnoxious and abnormal.
He said tourism and hotels are on the Residual List to be managed by the state government and not the federal government.
“The Constitution states that tourism and hotel management are under the Residual List, to be controlled by the state government and not the federal government. In spite of the private sector’s objection to the bill, the National Assembly still went ahead to pass it. Therefore, we urge the president not to sign it and disregard it.”
The Senate had, on October 19, passed the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2017, until it was signed recently after being subjected to scrutiny by all stakeholders.
