Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri has commended the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) for repositioning the country's tourism sector.

Waziri disclosed this recently in Abuja during a courtesy visit to her office in Abuja by the management team of NTDC, led by the Director General of the corporation, Otunba Segun Runsewe.

"We are pleased with the hard work you have been doing in tourism. I don't miss your programmes. I know you are here to partner with us on the onerous task to rid the country of corruption. We cannot do it alone, we will partner together so that we will move this country forward."

The EFCC boss who affirmed that her commission would take the crusade against corruption to the doorsteps of every Nigerian, however, decried the country's mono economic structure which has made crude oil the main stay even as countries like Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with no oil have been able to develop their economies by harnessing their tourism resources efficiently to become their major source of revenue.

She stressed that Nigeria was richly endowed with tourism potentials and should be developed to a level such hat it would serve as a veritable alternative source of revenue for the country.

The chairman of the anti- graft agency explained that the perception on Nigeria's image abroad is still on the negative side, especially the issue of scammers just as she announced that the EFCC had recently created a Transaction Clearing Platform (TCP) to tackle the menace of '419' letters emanating from Nigeria.

Responding, the NTDC boss stated that there was no country in the world that could manage its image effectively without its tourism profile, just as he explained that about 17 countries in the world depended solely on tourism.

While further stressing that Nigeria has the potentials for greatness as the country is blessed with abundant natural and human resources, the NTDC boss affirmed that time has come when we have to emphasis on our strength and de emphasis on our weaknesses.

Runsewe intimated the EFCC boss that since NTDC's collaboration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on the registration of tourism related business, crime rate in that area had reduced drastically.

He therefore stressed that it was on the basis of this that he had come to partner with EFCC to ensure that only genuine tourism practitioners do business in the industry.

He explained that the registration of hotels in Nigeria had a national security implications, hence, according to him, the NTDC would not leave any stone unturned to ensure its success.

While noting that the issue of hotel registration must be successfully completed before 'we could boast of proper classification and grading of hotels,' Runsewe frowned at the situation whereby hotels in Nigeria were being used to transfer money out of the country, as well as providing parking lots for stolen cars in the country.

He therefore called for an end to such criminality as NTDC's partnership with EFCC, according to him, would make it difficult for the perpetrators to operate.