Leadership (Abuja)
Pamela Sombo
27 June 2008
African Development Bank representative in Abuja, Mr Herve Assah, has said that policy inconsistency has continued to hinder development of tourism in Nigeria.
Assah made the statement in a paper titled, 'Financing Tourism Development through Public Private Partnership (PPP)', at a workshop on Tourism Development in Nigeria, the way forward.
"Experience generally shows that private and public sectors have failed to make needed investments in the industry because of bureaucracy, poor planning, policy inconsistency, lack of funds.
"In-existent/weak institutions, inadequate/malfunctional infrastructure and insecurity have constituted part of the problem in the industry," he said.
Assah said the world regarded Nigerian tourism as a gold mine waiting to be tapped, and called for a formidable public private partnership.
He said World Travel and Tourism Council in 2000 estimated that tourism and travel in Nigeria would exceed $10 billion in 2007.
Assah said the sum would have accounted for approximately 6 per cent of gross domestic product, which could have been attained through proper coordination with PPP.
Mr. Korede Adeyemi, a tourism practitioner, called for the establishment of the Tourism Development Fund (TDF) for easy access to funds for tourism development.
He said the fund would be used to develop tourism resources that would contribute to the strategies and outcome of the Nigerian Tourism Master-plan.
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