Alhaji Nura Kangiwa, Director-General, National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) has sought the stakeholders’ collaboration to sanitise the tourism and hospitality industries in order to pace up with global standards. At a meeting with newsmen after a facility tour of institute’s Lagos campus, Kangiwa, said he will focus on digitalising the institute by ensuring old equipment and materials were replaced with modern ones to pace up with global best practice.
”Plans are underway to train best destination managers, employ good marketing plan and more”, he said, adding that NIHOTOUR would be upscaling its trainings to produce efficient hospitality professionals. He said that the major yearnings of the industry in terms of grooming professionals to service the industry will be focused on greatly with lots of developmental strides.
” I was impressed with all I saw during the facility tour of the Lagos institute particularly with the vibrant and friendly staff I saw who I observed are hungry for action in working with me. “I believe in teamwork and I have seen that team spirit in them, they gave me courage and confident that we will satisfy the yearnings of the tourism sector in Nigeria.
” We intend to digitalise NIHOTOUR, our modus of operandi will be in accordance with International best practises, to achieve this, we have to change everything so almost all the facilities will be changed,” he said. Kangiwa said that NIHOTOUR, saddled with the huge responsibility for basic hospitality trainings and other vocational qualification programmes planned to engage best brains across the globe to carry out most of the trainings.
He said that the only way to tackle unemployment problem in the country was to harness the creative industry properly which happened to constitute 70 per cent employment opportunities. Kangiwa said that the Institute also planned to partner with the National Assembly for provision of sufficient funds to help the youths and women in the creative industry to be productive and independent.
He noted that the National Assembly will also be educated on the quality of NIHOTOUR certification as unemployed youths could secure jobs overseas with the certification. ” NIHOTOUR was rated one of the best top ten authorised training centres in Africa in August, 2012 by the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) and in 2015 we became top in Africa and the world so with our certificate, unemployed youths can secure jobs abroad. ” Henceforth, we shall be engaging the best brains for NIHOTOUR trainings, If we do not get NIHOTOUR right, we cannot get the Nigerian tourism right,” he said.
Kangiwa seek tourism and hospitality stakeholders collaboration to sanitise the industries in order to pace up with global standards.