ITPN collaborates with communication ministry to set agenda for Nigeria

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3 years ago

In its resolve to address the current challenges and trends of the tourism industry, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has focused on innovation, education, digital transformation and investments to strategically generate new business opportunities to drive global competitiveness, growth and sustainable development of the tourism sector.

This is part of the new priorities of the Secretary General of the UNWTO, Mr Zurab Pololikashvili, to boost innovation and digital advancement for tourism opportunities to improve inclusiveness, local community empowerment, efficient resource management within a wider sustainable and development agenda.

To achieve the set objectives, the UNWTO is proposing hosting of forums by sectoral stakeholders of the industry across the globe at local, national, regional and international levels to create synergy through collaborative actions between governments, academia, corporate organisations, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), investors, business support partners, etc., to provide understanding of current social trends and customer needs.

Back here in Nigeria, the Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria (ITPN) is cashing in on the digital transformation quest of the UNWTO to drive the nation’s tourism industry with a collaborative partnership with the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy and its agencies aimed at not only to serve the digitalisation needs of the tourism industry, but also help achieve the goals of the Ministry in the promotion of digitalisation in every sector of the Nigerian economy.

The National President of ITPN, Chief Abiodun Odusanwo, who revealed this to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, noted that as part of the Institute’s efforts to promote the use of digital technologies for the benefit of tourism operations in the country, it will focus part of its promotional activities more on ways and means of harnessing innovation and digital advances that will provide opportunities for inclusiveness, local community empowerment and efficient resource management in the tourism industry of the country as envisaged by the UNWTO.

He noted that within the scope of the sustainable development agenda as the focal point of global attention in line with the UNWTO program, ITPN will explore all avenues to drive the Nigerian tourism digitalisation process through creative innovation and entrepreneurship that will maximise the potentials of the sector in terms of economic growth, job creation and sectorial sustainable development.

“The Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria is the Nigerian premier national certification and professional membership body for hospitality, travel-tourism and allied occupations.

“It represents members working in the public, private and non-profit making organisations which ensures the highest standards of professional competence of practitioners in the Nigerian tourism industry.

Driving the advances of digitalisation of the Nigerian tourism industry, the Institute further hopes to host a forum specifically dedicated to tourism tech adventures where key players and critical stakeholders in the industry are expected to brainstorm on creating a future for the tourism industry.

“However, we will be looking at avenue where stakeholders will key into activities like investment fora, startups boot-camps, one-on-one networking between startups and investors, etc, all geared towards creating a digital operation climate for the Nigerian tourism industry.”

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The concessionaires complained of poor cooperation from state governments who mostly delay in meeting their own part of the agreement, for instance in the area of land provision.

Another major challenge they emphasised was the lack of narrow gauge rail lines in and out of the dry ports which they noted was important to make the operation of the ports efficient.

They added that access to funds also remained a major issue even as banks and foreign investors make unreasonable demands for assets and bank bonds before the release of funds.

The concessionaires unanimously stressed the need for the ports being constructed to be given the status of port of origin and destination and also to be registered with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) upon completion.

In view of the delay in execution, the concessionaires stressed the need for a new agreement, pointing out that an agreement started in 2017 between them and the NSC but it was yet to be cleared by the Federal Ministry of Justice on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Transportation.

They however commended the ICRC for its intervention and also appreciated the NSC for their support so far, noting that they were confident that under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the contracts will be sorted out.

The concessionaires pledged their commitment to see the concession to conclusion and the ports operational even as two of the concessionaires, Equatorial Marine Oil and Gas Ltd for the Katsina ports and Dala Inland Dry Port for the Kano Ports declared that their ports will commence operation before the third quarter of 2022.

Managing Director of Equatorial Marine Oil and Gas Ltd, Mr Usman Iya Abbas, informed the ICRC team that the Funtua port was already at over 85 per cent completion and was ready to launch before the end of the second quarter of 2022.

“We hope to commission this project before the end of the second quarter and the ports will become functional immediately. We are lucky to have great relationships in the shipping industry and with major shipping lines.

Managing Director, Dala Inland Dry Port Ltd., Hon. Ahmed Rabiu, concessionaires of the Kano Inland Port also hinted that the construction of the container depot was already nearing completion.

He assured that the company was working assiduously to ensure project completion and take off before the end of March 2022.

On his part, ICRC’s Director of Contract Compliance Department, Dr Ewalefoh who chaired the technical session of the meeting assured the concessionaires of the continuous support of the Commission, charging them however to send a detailed update of the contract status reports to the ICRC.

The Ag. Head, Media and Publicity of ICRC, Manji Yarling said he further enjoined the other four concessionaires who were yet to make remarkable progress in their contract execution to emulate the milestone recorded by the other two who were finalizing their constructions, so that the ports can yield the economic benefits for which the concessions were granted.

While thanking the stakeholders for honouring the invitation of the ICRC, it was resolved that going forward, there will be periodic meetings to ensure that the projects are speedily completed.