Unlock Nigeria’s Hospitality Potential
Nigeria’s hospitality industry holds enormous potential to drive tourism, create jobs and diversify the economy, but poor infrastructure, inconsistent policies and multiple taxation continue to constrain its growth. Convener of Hotel Managers Conference Africa, Olugbenga Sunday, outlines reforms needed to transform the sector into a major economic powerhouse. Charles Ajunwa brings excerpts
How do you handle the issue of capacity building in the sector?
We found out that within our sector, one important thing is the people, because it’s all about service. How do we handle our guests? So capacity is key to the success of our business, from the gates, to being a porter, to receptionist, to an housekeeper, because everything we do directly affects the service we offer our guests. Most of these things, they ask you with skills. Just to set a table for dinner, requires skills. To even wrap toothpicks require skill and so on. So, we don’t joke with skills, because it’s people-driven. So, we know that when we invest in their capacity, they will deliver better.
What role should government play in the hospitality sector?
I would say policy. Policy making is key, and most times, I see how they play down on policies that affect us as a sector. For instance, we talked about taxation, it’s a policy issue. We talked about monitoring, quality assurance, and quality control. Sometimes they even have those policies, but they don’t implement them. Because before you can even open a hotel we are supposed to have those policies in place. Apart from that, we are supposed to have controls and regulations. So, government needs to do more with regulations. How do you have a hotel that you don’t have restroom for the guests? Guests have to go to back of the building for convenience. If government has done their job, they wouldn’t have allowed that. Today in Nigeria, there are some hotels that are assisting the government, but the government is not even aware they are there. And I will say this, government needs to look at enabling environments, in the area of power, good roads and problem of floods. Some hotels today have shut down completely. They need to do something, because it’s killing us. Today, 40 per cent of our income go into power. This is something we’re supposed to enjoy, to run our business. What about security? Imagine hotels in Kogi and Borno. Infrastructure is important and government needs to pay attention to our sector and give us that support.
Can you throw more light on the 8th edition of Hotel Managers Conference Africa?
We have started preparation for the 8th edition of Hotel Managers Conference Africa (HMCA). This year’s theme is, ‘Raising the Bar: Sales, Service and Standards for a Competitive Africa’, which will hold from July 11 to 12 in Lagos. We started this conference in 2016 in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. We did the first three editions in Akwa Ibom. In 2022, we moved to Port Harcourt for the fourth edition. We lost some years to COVID. Our strategy for the project, is to conquer Nigeria. We want every region to have a taste of it. We moved the fifth edition of HMCA to Owerri, in the South-east region. Lagos hosted the sixth and seventh editions and we are going back there this year for the eighth edition of the conference. So, over the years, the conference has grown to become one of the major conferences we have today in the African soil. We have been able attract participants from different regions in Africa, physically present. From the fifth edition, we’ve been having participation from other countries. In Nigeria, we have been able to grow the conference to attract participants from all the six geopolitical zones. We have participants from North-east, North-west, North-central, South-west, South-east, and South-south. In fact, that was an edition that we had participants from 27 states physically present in our conference. For the international participation, we have participants coming from West Africa, Central Africa majorly Cameroon, East Africa- Uganda,
Rwanda, Botswana, the Kenya. We run this conference through sponsorship, because that’s the only way we’re able to push it to where we are today.
Beyond Nigeria, we have hospitality from East African interpretations, the West African interpretations, the Central African interpretations, and we come together to have that dialogue. Inside that same hall, we have opportunity for tech solutions, and innovations going on that support our system. So, we see it as a big ecosystem that beyond learning and capacity building, strong panel discussions, we should have time to find new solutions to our beddings, and a couple of solutions within our space. The vision of the conference is to just bridge that gap between local and international branded hotels.
From your assessment, what’s the success level of the project so far?
Let me first of all say, over the years, the conference has attracted more people, more stakeholders, leadership, General Managers, consultants, and some owners join us because the managers there are not just the GMs. It’s everyone that is involved in the management of the hotel. You agree with me that some of the owners, they are fully involved in managing the hotels. So, over the years, number one thing we have been to do with this project is exposure. Two, we get to know ourselves more now and in the course of it, that partnership is helping us because we are rubbing each other. I found out that the conference has given opportunities for people to have mentors. Sometimes, I found out that people that attend the conference, they go back fired up. They go back to their respective hotels and change one or two things. They want to implement what they have learned within the two days conference and we hear those testimonies. We see people now get their hotels better clean, well-structured, having better operation modules. Some of them, better SOPs. Some of them now understand the need for them to have training for their staff regularly, because that’s what we preach. Above all, I begin to see grooming. Before now, you go to some hotels, you can’t even identify the GM. But now, I begin to see that orientation, they now begin to look better. They know what to wear, what to put on, their wardrobe, and all that.
Lagos will be hosting the HMCA three consecutive years. Why?
We really want to go to other states, but once we start having those delegates coming in, we found out that Lagos is the only state that you can have direct flights, majorly. So, we are looking at an experience for our international participants. Lagos has actually defined Nigeria and we want to stay in Lagos for a while. For now, we want them to have that experience and over time, we will likely consider the likes of Abuja and Kaduna.