Players in the hospitality industry in Nigeria say foreign operators have consistently failed to invest in the country, but rather prefer to use local brands or operators to achieve their aim.
“The big operators do not want to invest in Nigeria. What they do is to use local operators like us,” said Valentine Ozigbo, CEO, Transcorp Hotels plc, at a seminar for the hospitality industry held in Lagos.
“It is about the local players keeping their money down. That’s why we want to see the rates come down. But the challenge also is inflation, which has refused to come down,” Ozigbo said, adding that there was the need for the government to support the industry.
“We need to get the right infrastructure, provide support in terms of manpower/training, look at taxes and incentives, cost of doing business, among others,” he said, stressing that funds would begin to flood into the industry once it got more competitive.
The forum was aimed at ensuring players in various sectors experience the new line-up of products currently available in the Nigerian market.
Anupam Ghosal, managing director, Blue Ocean Technical Services Limited, a strategic partner to LG Electronics, said this was the best time to introduce to the Nigerian market world-class solutions with global standards aimed at ensuring success in businesses.
Bernard Cassar, executive director, Bon Hotels, said hotels were generally superb if managed correctly, with the right market and in the right location.
“You have got some fairly good players. We are now seeing the market change dramatically. We have seen Radison, Marriot, Hyat coming in very seriously at the top end of the market. The market is growing and getting to its prime. This creates opportunity for competition,” Cassar said.
