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By Chinelo Obogo
Abuja’s hospitality industry is on the verge of collapse due to unreliable power supply and excessively high electricity bills from the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), an operator has lamented.
The chairman of Kachi Hotels Group, Onyeka Ugwuanyi, who runs a chain of hotels across Utako, Wuse and Maitama axis of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) stated that, despite spending N1.2 million monthly on electricity bills, power is hardly available. He said some of the hotels in the city are shutting down because it has become increasingly difficult to break even after spending so much to run on diesel.
He said that with the government’s plans to raise minimum wage, the industry would face more distress, as it means they would have to increase the wages of their workers.
“Many hotels currently don’t put on generators in the day because of the high cost of diesel and the resultant effect of that is the decline in patronage.
“One of my hotels in Utako has only 40 rooms and I spend an average of N1.2 million a month on electricity bills and four times of that amount on diesel. The constraint is that raising the room rates may as well lead to further decline in patronage because some customers would not be able to pay a commensurate rate to keep you afloat,” he said.
Ugwuanyi also bemoaned the high interest rates on loans which according to him is making it impossible for investors in the sector to access funds from the banks.He appealed for an intervention from the federal government to bring the interest rate down to enable investors to access capitals to run their businesses and make profit.
