... Offers free registration
The Director General of National Institute of Hospitality and Tourism, NIHOTOUR, Dr Abisoye Fagade, has offered personnel of the industry free registration with the institute, implying it's a Christmas gift that comes early and runs from December 1, 2024 to January 15, 2025.
Dr Fagade unveiled the offer last weekend in Lagos in a chat with journalists.
To put the offer in context, the DG explained that "the mandate of NIHOTOUR is to identify, register, certify, train and retrain - if need be - all the personnel of hospitality and tourism."
"Tomorrow (December 1, 2024)" the DG said, "Christmas is coming early. We are starting off with national registration of all personnel (of Hospitality and tourism), free of all charges, between now and January 15."
He said: "If you work with a hotel, nightclub, tourism outfit - whether as a waiter, room cleaner, manager, all the personnel at any level - we are pleading; go to our website and register for free."
The DG said anyone who doesn't register between December 1, 2024 and January 15, 2025, will pay for the registration.
"It is a way of identifying ourselves, and saying 'let's know you'. So, in my first week, I am announcing that we are starting off with registration, and we are being benevolent with it. We are doing this for free for now. We are not asking anybody for a dime. We are saying, 'come around, and let's know you. That's where we are starting from."
The newly appointed DG vowed to bring standard to NIHOTOUR. "In my four years, we will make sure that we bring standard to the industry; and to bring standard and sanity is a lot of work."
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Recently, when the Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism, and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, Esq, met with Dr. Abisoye Fagade at her office in Abuja, Dr. Fagade had reaffirmed NIHOTOUR's dedication to its mandate of building a skilled and globally competitive workforce in the hospitality and tourism sectors, expressing his readiness to align NIHOTOUR's programs with the Ministry's strategic objectives to create opportunities for economic diversification, job creation, and sustainable growth.
The minister had in the meeting acknowledged NIHOTOUR's vital role in enhancing capacity building and professional development across the tourism and creative industries, emphasizing the importance of a unified approach to delivering on the Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritizes innovation, youth empowerment, and economic transformation.
