By Okorie Uguru
The Director of National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) Aare Abisoye Fagade has said by virtue of the new NIHOTOUR act signed into law in 2022 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, the institute is longer a training institute, but rather a regulatory body for all personnel operating under the tourism industry value chain.
Fagade made this disclosure during an interactive session with tourism industry practitioners in Abuja this week. He said, “NIHOTOUR, as it is today, is no longer a training institute. NIHOTOUR has been given extra powers. A major function for NIHOTOUR 2022 act is to register tourism personnel.”
Abisoye said as long as particular service providers are part of the tourism industry as captured in the act setting up NIHOTOUR as amended, the law expects them to register and be certified by NIHOTOUR. His words: “It is all inclusive, everybody has to go online and register. From the agents, the air hostesses, because at some point, you would not be able to fly into Nigeria if you are not NIHOTOUR certified as an airline hostess. We will get there, and the kind of money we are going to be generating from there will be huge.” He said the idea is to have a complete data of personnel working in the Nigerian tourism industry. He continued: “If they don’t bring it, we will collect if by force, eventually, they will bring it. But what we are saying is that we are all good citizens of this country, Nigerians will register I know. It is needed; it is long overdue in this country. “