The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) on Saturday reiterated its commitment to reposition the tourism sector through infrastructure development and continuous training of staff.
The Director-General of NTDC, Mr Folorunsho Coker, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja that the corporation was doing well in human capital and infrastructure development.
He said this would take the sector to the next level of growth and development.
According to him, I scored the organisation high in terms of human capital and infrastructure development which will go a long way to reposition the sector for the needed growth.
“With these scores, the agency is poised to revolutionise the sector and place the country among global top earners in the sector.
The NTDC boss said the corporation had already empowered and built the capacity of its staff in the area of data and image making using Google tools.
He noted that the corporation acquired new office space for its zonal offices in Lagos for south west, renovated the zonal office in Jos for north central, Enugu in the south-east and Calabar in south-south.
“We improved welfare packages for staff in areas of promotion, health benefits and service benefits to retirees and payment of staff claims from 2015 to 2017. This will boost the morale of those in active service.
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“We have trained staff of the corporation on Facebook and internet technology to enhance digital media marketing and promotion of the brand; also, Wikipedia training on content building for the sector.
“The NTDC under my leadership has improved working conditions in the office by ensuring constant power and water supply during working hours and functional websites, verifies social media handles, faster and reliable internet,” Coker said.
He stated that he was able to settle pre-2017 pending litigations and petitions to stabilise the smooth running of the corporation.
He said that staff of NTDC has also been trained on tour packaging and ticketing through Public Private Partnership arrangements with Google and Jumia.
“The objectives of all these were to encourage the creation of jobs, improve staff welfare and motivation as well as partnership with tourism stakeholders.
The NTDC boss also stressed that the corporation purchased five new vehicles to aid project implementation and repairs of the buses for various routes.
He revealed that some infrastructure development by NTDC include tourism planning for Etsako central, Edo, rehabilitation of National Parks and Zoo in Abuja, Tiga Dam in Kano, Owu Waterfalls in Kwara.
Others are construction of the staircase up Kwotonkoshi Rock in Zamfara, construction of Argungu International Market and many others across the country.
“All these will go a long way to revolutionise the sector for a favourable positioning among top gainers country in tourism.
” We have also repackaged the Kano Durban, and hosted ‘Nigerian Flavours’, a food festival in 2018 and 2019. We shall continue to showcase to the world the best of Nigeria
“We have produced a lot of documentaries on different festivals in the country which we showcased to the world during Nigerian Cultural Day in Berlin, Germany and other platforms to attract tourists and improve the sector.