By Priscilla Osaje

The National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), says it will continue to take measures aimed at developing the tourism sector to make it a “gold mine’’.

This, it said would go a long way in boosting the nation’s economy.

The Director-General of NIHOTOUR, Alhaji Nura Kangiwa, said this in a retreat organised for senior management staff of the organisation across the six geo- political zones on Friday in Keffi, Nasarawa State.

The retreat with the theme: “Taking NIHOTOUR to Greater Heights: Post COVID-19’’ was geared toward enhancing capacity building of its staff.

Kangiwa expressed determination to turn the hospitality and tourism sector in the country to a gold mine by focusing on staff welfare, capacity development and sector-specific repositioning.

According to him, the three-point agenda will be implemented over the next four years in three phases, which are short, medium and long term.

He said that his objective was to engender a culture of excellence sustained by a well-motivated workforce, thereby, focusing on training and retraining of staff, regular staff promotion and educational grants for further studies.

“Already, I have commenced the implementation of staff welfare agenda with the recent release of promotion letters for members of staff across the campuses.

“Members of staff will be trained on Information Communication Technology (ICT).

“The coronavirus pandemic has shown us that this is the way to go, therefore, we will aggressively invest in the development of our ICT facilities for deployment of our training activities.

“In this day and age, no worker can be productive without ICT know-how, especially in NIHOTOUR a citadel of touristy learning,’’ he said.

He said that in the area of ‘Institutional Capacity Development, he hoped to make the Institute a centre of excellence capable of delivering on its mandate.

“As such, there will be a total overhaul of our infrastructure to make it conducive for staff and the students.

“This will involve improving on office accommodation, providing computers, making available internet access, building e- learning infrastructure, and investing in research projects among other.

“We have started working on relocating NIHOTOUR office in Abuja to a more expansive structure that will accommodate more staff offices.

“We will set up state of-the-art lecture halls and a functional world class training hotel, this will be achieved before the end of 2021.

“The first quarter of 2022 will focus on massive improvement on the condition of our zonal campuses,’’ he added.

Kangiwa said that the third agenda, which was repositioning NIHOTOUR to be a game-changer in the industry would be focus on.

“We are signing an MoU with the National Bereau of Statistics to provide technical AIDS and requisite skills for NIHOTOUR research team to carry out independent surveillance and researches germane to the growth of the industry.

“This will be done jointly because findings of such surveys and researches will be made available for government, tourism organisations and the organised private sector usage.

“The government, both state and federal need such evidence-based reports to make appropriate socio- economic policies, while the private sector needs it to make informed investment decisions in the Hospitality and Tourism Sector,’’ he noted.

According to him, his organisation will be working with other specialist agencies in Nigeria and at the international level in mainstreaming NIHOTOUR ‘s drive to be the foremost tourism development enabler in Nigeria.

“We have commenced negotiation with the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) among others”.

NIHOTOUR boss encouraged members of staff to engage in personal professional development, adding that they would be encouraged to further their education in related specialist field.

He also assured members of staff that the Institute could give grants or partly fund the programme, adding that they would soon come up with a criteria for accessing such educational grants. (NAN)