The sensitization aimed to teach the participants the registration of hospitality outfits and the legal act of granting rights to hospitality businesses to operate in FCT geographical space in exchange for mild payments.
The FCT Mandate Secretary, Social Development Secretariat, Dr. Hadiza Mohammed Kabir, disclosed this to newsmen during the sensitization exercise in Abuja on Thursday.
She said: “The FCT was benefiting from the revenues derived from this exercise when the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) had the mandate to collect and share revenues accruing to it in the effect. But this has stopped following the devolution of such powers on the State of the Federation and FCT by the Supreme court judgement of 19th July 2013. The implication of this is that FCT would take over from the NTDC.
“Although there is already an act mandating the Tourism department to register under license all Tourism operations in the Territory, a Ministerial Authority and sensitization are necessary because new areas that require to be incorporated under the Tourism legislation have emerged such as the issues of multiple taxation and contravention of land use act and other emerging trends. The FCTA needs to tidy up these gray areas for the success of the project and benefit all stakeholders.
Earlier, the Director Tourism Department, SDS, Lady Marie Ochonue, revealed that since 2013 the FCT had never collected a dime from any hotel for the sake of registration and “therefore, we want to start with immediate.”
She noted that the law governing hotel registration in Nigeria dated back to 1937, when the first hotel was established in the country.
“But in the FCT, when I came in as the Director of Tourism Department i noticed that all hotels about 3,500 operating in the FCT, none of them is registered and a lot is happening in these hotels.
“Some people will just convert one part of their room and it a hotel, and insecurity are bounds everywhere. Therefore, there is a need for us to harmonise the operation and activities of hotels in the FCT.
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“Therefore, we want to start with immediate effect. We may or may not ask for the arrears depending on the outcome of the interactive forum that hotel operators requested that we have with them.
“But here we are FCT under tourism department we are ready, we are willing and we are about to start hotel registration in the FCT immediately.”
A stakeholder, Mr Nkereuwem Onung, the President Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria (FTAN), while responding, appealed to the Social Development Secretariat to deepen consultation and interface with tourism stakeholders in the territory with a view to find a common ground.
“I believe that we will always agree to move the business forward and ensure that the FCT remains the best for us.”