3 hours ago
6
By Samuel Luka
Governments at all levels have been requested to give grants to hotel owners in Nigeria in order to improve their businesses as well as generate more revenue and boost the country’s economy.
National President of the Nigeria Hotel Association (NHA) His Highness, Eze Dr Patrick Anyanwu, who made the appeal at a press conference in Bauchi Thursday, disclosed that many of them borrowed money from banks to run the businesses.
Speaking on outcome of a recent delegate meeting held in Lagos, the National President of the NHA said the association is working hard to unite its members as one powerful body.
According to him, the plea on the government to assist members of the NHA was necessitated by their contribution to the development of Nigeria in terms of revenue generation, creation of employment opportunities, accommodating visitors from all over the world, among others.
Dr. Patrick Anyanwu who observed that the government of Nigeria does not have adequate number of hotels to serve visitors coming from within and outside the country, argued that it is his members that are accommodating visitors from all over the world.
While emphasizing the need for the grant for his members, the president of the NHA decried that many of the hotels borrowed money from banks to uplift their businesses but revenue officials keep coming with multiple requests for revenue.
He said that the NHA is focusing attention on the government for the grants because they are the ones collecting revenue from members of the association.
According to him, the grants will help them in sustaining their businesses, thereby retaining the youths they have employed on behalf of the government who would have constituted nuisance to the society.
“We deserve to have grants because after states, we the hotel owners are the biggest sources of revenue to the government and the biggest employers of labour”, he stated.
The National president of the NHA who stressed that the grants would be used to put their hotel businesses in order, pointed out that a hotel built 20 years ago has to be renovated to attract more visitors.
“If we didn’t upgrade our hotels they will go home with bad news and it will affect the image of the country”, he said.
Dr. Patrick Anyanwu who said some hotels have more than 100 staff in their payroll, advised revenue collectors to liaise with the leadership of NHA across states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to know the caliber of hotel they demand revenue from.
Dr. Anywanwu while stating that collection of revenue should not be done by force or mounting too much pressure on the owners of hotels, urged every hotel to register with the association from state to national level.
He informed the need for registration of new members, and payment of annual dues regularly.
The National President of the NHA who lamented that big hotel owners do not want to join the association, stated that whosever is doing hotel business know that they are supposed to belong to NHA.
“This is because we do have meetings and update ourselves to know the challenges facing members in order to defend them when you are right and to punish erring members”, he said.
English (US) ·