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The National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) may soon embark on compulsory registration of tourism practitioners following the expiration of the 45-day free registration period (December 1, 2024 to January 15, 2025) it gave to all tourism practitioners in the country.
The institute, in line with its mandate, had announced an ambitious project to register all tourism practitioners in the country, as this helps in planning and to weed out quacks.
Speaking on the registration, the NIHOTOUR chief executive, Mr. Abioye Fagade had said: “What is the mandate of NIHOTOUR? It is simple: we are supposed to identify, register, certify, train, if possible, all the personnel of the hospitality and tourism business. Immediately I joined in, I realised that it is a huge job that I can’t do by myself.
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Like every other parastatal, funds are never available, but that has never been a barrier for me. So, we are starting off with the national registration of all personnel free of charges, between now and January 15. If you work with the hotels, night clubs, within the tourism environment as a waiter, room cleaner, manager, and all the personnel at any level, we are pleading for them to go on our website and register for free. At least, that is a way of identifying ourselves, like let’s know you.”
The NIHOTOUR boss said after the free registration period, which elapsed on January 15, 2025, the institute would embark on compulsory registration. He said: “So, in my first week I am announcing that we are starting registration and we are being benevolent with it. We are doing it this time around for free. We are not asking anybody for a dime. We are saying come around, let us know you. That is where we are starting. And in my four years, we will make sure that we bring standard to the industry. And to bring standard and sanity, you know what it says. It is a lot of work. I will unfold a lot of things as we go along, but the biggest one right now is that from the first of December, you are allowed to come and register on our platform for free. If you don’t register between now and 15th of January (2025), after that time, we will now ask you for money. That is that, and that is where we are.
“I keep telling people, tourism is a social bitcoin. If we do not tap into it now…we have not even started with tourism in Nigeria. When we start, the madness of ‘I can’t get a job’ will be erased in this country. Easily people can understand that with their certification, they can create something. There will be job creation, a lot of jobs will be created. And we are opening up in all the 36 states of this country. It is IGR for the country. “
