NIHOTOUR, HOFA in dialogue: Balancing professional standards with industry realities

By Jimoh Babatunde

The hospitality manufacture successful Nigeria sits astatine a delicate crossroads. On 1 hand, authorities institutions are pushing for higher nonrecreational standards to marque the assemblage globally competitive.

On the other, operators are grappling with harsh economical realities that endanger concern survival.

This hostility came to the fore connected Tuesday successful Abuja erstwhile the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) met with the enactment of the Hotel Owners Forum Abuja (HOFA).

The meeting, held astatine NIHOTOUR headquarters, brought unneurotic elder absorption of the Institute led by Director-General Aare Dr. Abisoye Fagade and HOFA executives led by President Mr. Emeka Ezekwesili.
At involvement was a clearer knowing of NIHOTOUR’s regulatory relation nether its 2022 Establishment Act and the 2025 Regulations—and however these volition impact operators connected the ground.

Clarifying Mandates

Dr. Fagade took pains to explicate that NIHOTOUR’s mandate does not widen to registering edifice buildings oregon carnal establishments, a work that lies with different authorities agencies.
Instead, the Institute is tasked with training, certifying, and regulating the quality capital—the chefs, front-desk managers, circuit operators, and hospitality professionals—who yet find work prime and lawsuit experience.

“This is astir people, not conscionable places. Hotels bash not tally themselves—people do. And it is these radical we are committed to upskilling, accrediting, and empowering successful enactment with the law,” Fagade said.

By positioning itself arsenic the custodian of professionalism successful the sector, NIHOTOUR aims to guarantee that Nigerian hospitality workers conscionable planetary standards.

But for galore operators, the situation lies not successful the vision, but successful the outgo of achieving it.

Industry Pushback

HOFA President, Mr. Ezekwesili, was wide successful his appeal: NIHOTOUR indispensable debar becoming different bureau adding to the industry’s fiscal burden. With rising operational costs, aggregate taxation, and dwindling patronage, galore hotels are already struggling to enactment afloat.

“Professionalizing the assemblage is champion achieved done affordable grooming and continuous accomplishment development, not dense levies oregon registration fees,” helium argued, aligning with the long-standing presumption of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN).

The strongest disapproval came from HOFA’s solicitor, Barr. B.V. Inedia, who described caller request notices for N1.3 cardinal successful unit registration fees arsenic an “undue burden” imposed without due manufacture consultation.

For him and galore different hoteliers, specified measures endanger not conscionable profitability but besides employment wrong the sector.

A Sector successful Transition

The Abuja gathering highlights a broader conflict wrong Nigeria’s hospitality and tourism ecosystem: the propulsion to rise standards portion maintaining a business-friendly environment.

For NIHOTOUR, the professionalization of the workforce is non-negotiable if Nigeria is to vie with destinations similar South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt, which boast structured grooming and certification systems.
For operators, however, endurance successful the existent economical clime is the priority.

Many fearfulness that without cautious implementation, the NIHOTOUR Act could displace workers, undermine existing qualifications, and marque hotels little competitive.

The Way Forward

Despite these differences, the league ended connected a conciliatory note, with some parties agreeing to acceptable up a Joint Implementation Committee to thrust resolutions and support unfastened channels of communication.

Whether this collaboration leads to a shared imaginativeness remains to beryllium seen.

What is clear, however, is that the aboriginal of Nigeria’s hospitality manufacture volition beryllium connected striking the close balance—between regularisation and flexibility, nonrecreational standards and economical realities.

The NIHOTOUR–HOFA dialog is lone the...