“NANTA will get a befitting secretariat”, President

The National President of NANTA, Mr. Dayo Adeola in an exclusive interview with NANTA news bares his mind on the latest development in the Association, the Nigerian travel/tourism market and many other burning issues. Excerpt.

You have been the president of NANTA for more than two years now, what would you say is your achievement in office?

Although, I would rather want others to talk about my achievements in office, however, I will say we have been able to progress along two folds; our business as travel agents and the association in general.

We have put majority of our members on BSP and DIP (Default Insurance Policy) A form of insurance policy which replaced bank guarantees as security for Airline ticket stock.

Our industry generates billions of Naira into the Nigerian economy. We also have been able to remove touts and there is plan to construct a befitting building for the associations secretariat. However, our term is fast coming to an end as executives of NANTA, so the new executives will continue from where we stopped.

What are the challenges of presiding over an organisation with about 1005 members scattered across the country?

There is a greater challenge in handling the interest of all but surely, but majority is carried along. Airlines, IATA, NCAA now listen to us and we now have a vibrant, functional secretariat. All these have been very challenging.

There is the news that NANTA wants to build a befitting secretariat, can you shed light on this?
We are holding discussions with a reputable bank in the country as regards the property. The agreement if concluded will see the bank develop a four-storey property befitting of the new NANTA status, NANTA is only required to bear the cost of providing the piece of land for the property in a strategic location. I can assure you that we are pursuing this to a logical end.

Surely, the secretariat project will be a multi million naira one, what would be the source of funding?
Most definitely, this project is a multi-million naira one as we plan to provide the association with a befitting property and this costs money. Funding for this particular proposed NANTA house will be provided by one of the major banks in the country as I mentioned earlier and donations from corporate organisation.

Am sure you have been in this industry for a while, how will you describe the Nigeria travel market in terms of investment, customers and profitability?

In 2008 there were one million travellers and in 2009 the record shows that there were one million two-hundred travellers from Nigeria which signifies that there are improvement and progress in the Nigerian travel market.

I would say because of our foreign related economy in which almost everything is imported into the country, Nigerians love to travel a lot making the market boom.

The market I dare say is still a profitable one although margin is low as a result of the global recession that affects all other sectors as well.

How would you describe the contributions of the travel market in Nigeria to the tourism development and overall economy of the country?

Because of security issue that is still problematic in the country, there is still low inbound of tourists but lots of outbound, that is we have few tourist coming into the country at the expense of very many travelling out of the country and as regards the economy, tourism is still a very low contributor as the sector is still largely controlled by government.

For instance, the Eyo festival in Lagos, Calabar carnival in Cross River and others are government driven. There is hope that we will get there sooner than expected.

Any moment from now, there would be an election to usher in new Executives of NANTA, what would you want to be remembered for; I mean your legacy while in office as the President of NANTA?

Well, the AGM is scheduled for Kano and the elections will also hold there. I strongly believe that the election will be transparent and democratic. All I will solicit for is that all members of the association should be present to support the AGM in Kano in order to elect credible officers who would take NANTA to the next level.

Combining your personal business and the duties as NANTA President, how tasking has it been?
It is very tasking but it is a selfless effort and sacrifice from my part and this is why I want to ensure that those taking over will build upon the foundation of our success.

We have been able to influence the decisions of our partners to our favour. It’s been a great and wonderful opportunity for me to serve.