Why I am promoting domestic tourism - MbanefoWritten by Yemisi Aofolaju Wednesday, 04 December 2013 00:00 , Nigerian Tribune
The Director-General, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Mrs Sally Mbanefo, in this interview with YEMISI AOFOLAJU, sheds light on what has militated against the optimal performance of the sector and why the private sector must be courted to drive tourism growth, since the government cannot do it alone, among other issues. Excerpts
THE problem of insecurity has been on for some time now in some of the states; will this not militate against tourism in Nigeria?
I was invited to Borno State recently where I made a statement that was said to be controversial. I said safety can never be an issue in Nigeria. It is the only country that CNN and other international media would beam its slums and not report anything that Nigeria is doing right. I said is there no country where there is no security issue and has that stopped people from touring? Talk about America, Egypt, Kenya, even Israel, and others. I was amazed to see the way tourists converged on the Egyptian stand, with all that is going on in that country. I now paused and asked: 20 years ago, Nigeria had security, was there tourism? Hence, security cannot be an issue. It is more about what we have to offer and telling our story in a more compelling and credible way and having credible communication about what Nigeria has.
For years, tourism potentialities in the country have been orchestrated. What, in your opinion has continued to militate against the proper harnessing of the sector for the good of Nigeria?
I think communication is the major problem that Nigeria has. Positive communication of what Nigeria has to offer has been the major problem. I have come to realise the role of the press in telling the story in a compelling and convincing way to outsiders that Nigeria has so much good things to offer. I think over the years, Nigeria has so relaxed to have depended so much on the foreign media to be the one to write our stories for us.
Everybody wants to sell his story. Americans want to sell their propaganda to their people. It once had a president who never left his state, yet became the president of America. This shows the level of their internal communication that tells them that they have all they need and they have no reason to go to other parts of the world. This is the mentality of an average American. But this has been missing in Nigeria over the years. This is the paradigm shift that we Nigerians need. An average Nigerian should believe that Nigeria is great, vast, beautiful and has a huge and a lot of ground to cover. Not until Nigerians begin to think this way and appreciate what we have, others will not appreciate us. This is the reason I am harping on domestic tourism, which is my key component strategy.
What is domestic tourism?
Domestic tourism is in a way that we want Nigerians to develop a culture of having leisure in the country, instead of working and working, which we are all guilty of. And when Nigerians think of leisure at all, they think of travelling out of the country. Why should this be? We have beautiful sites all over the country.There is no state in Nigeria that is not endowed. Talk of Nasarawa, Enugu, Taraba and other states in the country. I have been able to capture all these beautiful sites in my three months in office. From all these, I saw that Nigeria has much to offer. Domestic tourism, in essence, means that Nigerians should explore their country. We want to tell Nigerians that Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) and the Federal Government are ready to provide the means to make your travelling to other parts of the country easy. NTDC has already signed an MOU with ABC Transport Company to facilitate travelling by road. This company is over 20 years old. This is what our partnership should be talking about.
Mrs Sally Mbanefo and others at Olumo Rock, Abeokuta, Ogun StateForeigners need to be told that Nigeria is a destination to be appreciated. We are doing all these so as to ensure better travel infrastructure and quality services when travelling by land, water or air across Nigeria, in order to afford a holiday within Nigeria after meeting basic needs like food, health, education, housing and other necessities of life, while also seeking improvements in travel security and up to date information about sites and attractions.
Are we on the right path to achieving this?
Domestic tourism also means that we want to attract Nigerians in Diaspora. WTO London experience opened my eyes to a lot of things. This is a wake up call to Nigerians by Nigeria to give tourism a chance.. We want Nigerians in the Diaspora to come back home; we want them to know that they are appreciated back home, to come and develop other people with the skills they have acquired. Like training the trainers, so as to add value to capacity building, because this is one of the things we need in Nigeria. This is also a wake up call to Africans in Diaspora. We have Africans in Canada, Carribean Africans, American Africans who are yawning to come home, all they need is just an invitation and when they do that, we are working to ensure that they have a pleasurable experience. What is more important is the impact of a Nigerian travelling outside of a country populated by over 170million people. Nigerians, because of the oil boom, had access to education, we are highly educated people , the highest number of educated people that we have on data when compared to Europe, especially the female community, shows that an average Nigerian woman is educated and feeding her children and herself. We are economically independent when compared to our European counterparts, considering the level of education that we have. What if ten per cent of every Nigerian who has worked outside Nigeria has experienced Nigeria in a positive way? Imagine the positive story they are taking out there that is spread to change the negative publicity we have out there. I believe we don’t deserve this. Nigerians are nice. Our food is fabulous. Our people are wonderful, warm, our weather is fantastic for tourism. We have culture and festivals that are diverse in nature. For instance, Olumo Rock, Olumirim Water Falls, Ikogosi Cold/Warm Springs, Zuma Rocks are beautiful sites to behold, among others. People want to journey, they want to have a scenic rout of these beautiful sites. The greenery sites and landscape. Go to Delta State, where I come from, the earth there is red. Go to Lagos, the sand there is white and other special features that are peculiar to other zones suggest that Nigeria is such a rich country.
How will you assess your establishment’s assistance or partnership with some state governments to develop tourism?
If you think about tourism well, it should be private sector –driven. And this is the reason it has not worked well in Nigeria, because we think it should be driven by the government for government, relying on government money. So, I told the NTDC staff that this should not be; that we need to generate the fund and the need for them to change their mindset to be revenue generation-driven. I have been meeting with state governments to seek partnership with them. How are we going to be generating revenue? How are we going to be independent of government handout?
Mrs Sally Mbanefo at the Residency Calabar with NTDC staffGovernment says in 2020 or thereabout, that it will hands-off funding. I have resolved that by the time I have spent a year at NTDC, I will go back to the government that by this date, I will stop taking money from the government. We will generate revenue that will follow the fiscal responsibility role and 80 percent of this will go into the treasury.
How do you intend to be independent of government handout?
Private sector must be involved. Already, within my first three months in the saddle, I have been interacting with the private sector. I have been in virtually all the sectors all my working years. My first shock was leaving banking into manufacturing, I was head hunted by Lafarge Cement. So this is not my first outing. I am tougher than I look. Cement is very rough for women you know. I was the first female in executive level in Lafarge, supervising general managers, executives and operations. For 45 years, men were heading such a multi-national company and I broke this tradition, though not without its challenges.
But then, as the first female to occupy such a post, what did you do to bring more women on board?
Oh, I was petitioned to Paris that I had turned the company to an all women entity. I was given free hand to operate so they said that I had brought in women. Lafarge, at the time I joined, was having problems with their shareholders. The Oodua group were the major shareholders and they did not want to dilute their shares to outsiders. In the meantime, to survive, they had to borrow from the bank because effectively they were working for the bank, because cost of operations were very high while the workforce had been promised world class salary and every year they couldn’t deliver. But with my experience at IMB, where I carried out three major restructurings. My leverage at IMB gave me leverage at Lafarge Cement. Wherever I am, I always look for how to motivate people to work and find fulfillment in what they are doing. Not just to work like machine, desire to come to work every day. Because the staff at Lafarge were not happy, the promises made were not kept which was blamed on the management for what had been on for almost 30 years which was hitherto changed because of a new person with a different perspective helped. At Lafarge, I ensured that women were given the opportunity to prove their worth. Women are honest and more stable, consistent and reliable.
Women don’t chase the green thing (money) we are more interested in proving ourselves on the job because we have to work 10 times harder than men for us to be noticed. When you give a woman an opportunity she will do it well. At a point I had to tell them at Lafarge that they shouldn’t forget that women gave birth to them. They said they would get pregnant, I now asked them ‘Have I been pregnant? Is any of the women pregnant? Is their curriculum vitae short of quality? But what I did at Lafarge eventually opened the door for women.
Tourism is about showcasing what we have for people to see and appreciate, have we designed the templates of the wonders we want our an intending tourists to enjoy?
In fact, that is what I am working on currently. I have been to Calabar, Yenegoa, Kogi, Abeokuta and intending to go to Ekiti. This is all about domestic tourism. Before you call on tourists to come, we would have carried out our beat diligently. In achieving this, we have already gone into partnership with Arik airline to give subsidised tickets to encourage any Nigerians who would want to travel by air to anywhere he wants to go. I have signed an MOU with ABC Transport Corporation, they have a commitment to make, that they should be prepared to take Nigerians by road to where aircraft cannot take them to at a reduced rate and for tourists who cannot afford to tour by air. I am talking about grassroots tourism.
Tourism is not only for the rich and the elite alone. People who cannot afford to go abroad need to be happy about their country. You see Nigerians at embassies, struggling to get visa to get out of Nigeria, without knowing that those who are even outside are suffering, some of them are even ashamed to come back home. We also want to encourage those who are abroad to come back home, especially the ones with good hearts who are professionals who fled to search for greener pastures but who later found out there that it wasn’t all that green on the other side. Every time we see expatriates coming into the country. What are they coming to do? Nigeria, we must not forget, is successful in business tourism. We are successful in religious tourism, the movie and Nollywood tourism is another venture that is fantastic and successful. For the first two days that I arrived in our Lagos office, I asked my staff what they were doing and they said nothing because there was no tool to work with in terms of official vehicles. The next thing I did was to run back to the private sector to ask for assistance. I have been known for giving out money, but for where I found myself, had to beg. I asked the people in my former constituency that NTDC staff needed buses. And we were given. This has indirectly affected the staff morale as they are prepared than before to generate revenue. I then told them that they must not ask me again for handout from Abuja since they are located in Lagos that is more economically sustaining. I have mandated them that they need to generate their money in Lagos.
Mrs Mbanefo supporting the Eagles to victory in Calabar, Cross River StateThey have been able to make inquiries at the Redemption Camp and Synagogue, the annual Shiloh gathering organised by Winners Church about their programmes as millions of people throng these worship centres for religious activities from all over the globe to sell Nigerian tourism. There are equally tourism sites in Badagry that needs to be toured by tourists. By the time the NTDC tell the story of Nigeria’s tourism potentials to the tourists, those having the intention of spending a day might end up spending one week. What we have been doing is to authenticate the sites available. The response we’ve been receiving in the last five months have been encouraging. I have also ensured that I live by example by going to see these sites myself before I begin to sell the Nigerianess in our tourism sites to Nigerians and foreigners by taking photographs and filming for necessary updating. There is also the need to get the infrastructures at the sites up to date, the government cannot necessarily do all these alone.
My plan in the next one to two years is to encourage state governments in the various zones to really work at improving at least two tourists sites in their states. We have entered into discussion with the governor of Cross River State and his wife. Mrs Imoke has shown much interest in our project. What the governor is not doing, the wife is complementing in the area of tourism. Access to Calabar is fantastic and journey from the airport to town is just 15 minutes. Calabar is a fantastic destination for tourists. Calabar, it is made. The only thing we need to work on there is the frequency of flights to the state. After Calabar is Kogi that has a historical landmark, and we want to dialogue with the governor, to ask him what he is going to do to bring tourists to his state. We need to find out the state of the access roads and finance, because I have access to private sector in terms of funding to fix the roads. My background is such that we can always access fund, it is not just the responsibility of the government.
There are funds for such projects waiting to be accessed. There are international multi-lateral funding agencies that will be interested in funding such projects, but they have not seen anybody talking passionately and aggressively about tourism potentialities in Nigeria and that Nigeria is far riches than what she is believed to be. They are waiting for somebody who passionately believe that tourism will work in Nigeria. At the just concluded WTO, I sat for hours with officials of the World Bank who are already discussing with the Minister of Trade, Segun Aganga’s team which has tourism aspect also for financing infrastructure. What the states can do on their own, we will encourage them to do quickly. At the end of this exercise, I will be able to prove the promise to Nigerians that, at least, we have delivered. I don’t want to be over ambitious, I want to be practical as much as I can be; at least one tourist destination per zone. At least, if any tourist is visiting any of the zones, we can guarantee one tourist site with all the facilities needed in place.
In addition, we have met with travel operators and agents, tour operators, airline operators and aviation agency. Consequently, FAAN has made a commitment to give us a stand at the airports where tourists can see at a glance the sites available and the need for an information centre.
How do you intend to direct tourists to the sites of choice as it obtains in other tourist –friendly countries?
We are already working on the classification. At the WTO, I met with Ministers of Tourism from The Gambia, Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone to discuss on how we can work on a West African tourist brand. We are also working on a single ticket that will take tourists through the five West African countries. This is about the regional tourism not international tourism. In the new year, we want to talk to security chiefs, Customs and Police. This is a long journey, but we want to achieve a thing at a time. We are even reaching out to the diplomatic community who are enjoying peace in Nigeria. We want to ask them why they are not telling their people the good things about the country. We want to tell them to give good testimonials about Nigeria, and that Nigerians are peaceful and loving. If people can go to South Africa , Egypt, Kenya, and other places, are civil unrests not happening there? We intend to interact with the security chiefs of the Navy, the Airforce and the Army. We are also going to the oil communities, especially Yenegoa. Why are the oil and gas people not doing anything in their host communities? Nobody is talking. There is the need to tell them to do something for the country they are making money from. They equally needed to be told to start adding value to Nigeria. The same goes for the banking and manufacturing sectors. Cadbury is already partnering with us. These are the sets of people we want to partner with. We don’t want lips service, but commitment translating into service in terms of social corporate responsibility.
What are you doing to ensure that the objectives of the Federal Government are realised for having the tourism body?
The situation at the NTDC requires a three-fold strategic imperative for moving forward. Hence, the urgent need to rebuild the corporation. For this to be done, there is the need to systematically repair, replenish, replace and maintain the vision, mission, values and goals to achieve a shared understanding with all staff on how public sector accountability can better serve the changing priorities of our stakeholders, enhance conditions of service, organisational processes and staff competencies for enhanced productivity, staff productivity and collaboration tools and service delivery technologies while also improve facilities and working environment. Also important is the issue of developing active databases of tourism traffic, operators, event calendars and sites.
The second strategy has to do with growing the tourism value chain, which primarily covers initiatives to deepen the value chain as a significant contributor to job creation, poverty reduction and revenue growth. To make this realisable, the regulatory provision of the law establishing NTDC to grow revenue needs to be exploited, partner with private and development finance sector financiers and investors to create funds to enhance the physical and information infrastructure supporting the value chain, exploitation of the image rights surrounding our cultural heritages, artefacts and festivals while also creating commercially viable events and media properties around tourism sites, re-energise, market and defend Brand Nigeria on traditional media, physical channels and cyberspace to attract domestic and foreign tourists and also leverage ongoing programmes and other ministries, departments and agencies to multiply job creation.
The third leg has to do with re-inventing Nigeria’s tourism industry through the introduction of programmes that change how value is created, marketed, sold, delivered and financed while enhancing competition, collaboration and cooperation across the value chain.
What should Nigerians expect within the shortest time from this sector in terms of your projection?
What I have learnt from my Lafarge Cement experience is, once you make a promise as a management you must ensure you fulfill it. And before you make a promise, you must make a research, because a promise is a debt that must be paid. From assumption of office at the NTDC, we have been able to address some of the problems militating against the performance of the staff that ranged from poor salary structure, promotion crisis, not too good working environment, offices without electricity, internal wrangling, among other things. With the little fund that is available and from friends of the agency in the private sector, we have been able to solve some of the immediate ones. In fact, Heritage Bank has been supportive of our needs, Stanbic IBTC is equally on the move. We are trying to renovate the Lagos office, the power problem has been resolved, through the assistance of the defunct PHCN, while the staff now go out using the buses that were donated by our partners, among other things, in ensuring that our goals and targets are realised. In fact, the staff are eager to work to get the corporation on its feet. From my interaction so far, I have come to realise that Nigerians are so passionate about their culture, tradition and tourism.
In addition, the transport industry, aviation industry, waterways are very important sectors. We have to take a step at a time. There is a need to partner with these sectors for our goals to be achieved. This is so huge and we have to know where to cut for phase one so as to know where to start-off phase two. We are working on a green city project as a differentiating platform for Nigeria’s eco-tourism credentials in Abuja, with features like a bio-fuel refinery for conversion of waste to wealth, botanical gardens, hotels, sports facilities, industrial parks, water parks and heath malls, among others this project will, at least, create 20,000 jobs in two years and promote Nigeria as a preferred destination for the growing eco-tourism market.
In the medium term , we are working on the design of the establishment of a Tourism Development Fund (TDF). It is a fund designed to treat capital adequacy, allocation and timing issues associated with enhancing existing and developing new sites by states and private investors. It is desired that the fund be initially seeded by the Federal Government and development finance institutions.
What is NTDC doing to have a unique souvenir for tourists, telling the wonders of Nigeria?
We are working on this. Don’t forget that there are about 500 sites in the country. We will have to sit and agree on what to design based on the six geo-political zones that make up Nigeria. It is not an assignment that can be done in a hurry.
The vision we have is a broad one, we don’t want to over promise and under deliver. If we say we want a tourist site in a zone to be beautiful, accessible, pleasurable, habitable, presentable to the eyes, to the nose, to the ears and to the environment, all we are after is practical tourism that will re-invent in the areas of creating jobs and making Nigerians happy as a people. Job creation is very paramount. We have even embarked on verification and the next stage would be inviting Nigerians to come and see for themselves
