THE National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Establishment Bill 2022 was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari this week.
The NIHOTOUR act became the first federal tourism law passed by the National Asssembly since the country’s advent to civilian rule in 1999.
By this law, NIHOTOUR becomes the only federal tourism agency to effectively derive its mandate through a law passed by the National Assembly rather than inherited military fiat. The NIHOTOUR act of 2022 is expected to change a lot of things in Nigeria’s travel and tourism industry.
A credible source within NIHOTOUR, who would rather remain anonymous since he was not mandated to speak to this newspaper, said the signing of the bill into law was a major milestone that would impact positively on the industry.
He spoke on how NIHOTOUR was able to achieve this and the impact it would have on the Nigeria tourism industry: “This is a welcome development and I think it has to do with the tenacity of purpose by the present leadership of the institute. All these years, we have not been given teeth to bite, because with the act, we are able to do a lot of things in the industry.
“Most times, a lot of people who are able to take our courses believe that since there was no act, our courses cannot be used, maybe in their organisation for promotion; without the act, those that the needed to pursue other degrees cannot do that; and if you want to have affiliation with some of these universities so that our students could go in and pursue their degrees,one of the things they will keep on asking us is where is our act.
“You remember, when the institute was established, we have the project document… But that one, again, does not convince them. I believe with the signing of the bill into law, we will be able to do a lot of things and out impact in the industry more than than it was in the past.”
He listed some of the things NIHOTOUR could do with the act: “We will be able to sign some MoUs with some universities for our students to pursue their degrees further. You know we run post graduate degree programmes and also diploma programmes. So, we can have relationship with some of these universities and the students can go further.
“Secondly, based on what we have in the act, we are to certify personnels in the industry. This will also help us to be able to do that. Also, within the industry, we have some personnel that we would want to train. So, we would be able to train them. Before, we cannot do that because we don’t have the act.
“ For instance, there was a time we wanted one of these foreign organisations to help us with some funds. They asked whether we have any act setting us up. So, with this, we will be able to reach out to them and know that we will be able to attract a lot of funds for the development of the institute.”
The NIHOTOUR source also spoke on its impact in the Nigerian tourism industry. He said: “You know that our mandate is to provide training for personnel in the industry. To the larger Nigeria, we will be able to do more of this training. I want to assure you that in some of the areas where our presence has not not been felt, they will be able to feel our presence.”