By Ere-ebi Agedah
Leading hospitality brand, BON Hotels International West Africa has expressed readiness to take more youths in the country out or labour market and meaningfully engage them with economic activities.
The hotel listed Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Kano, Warri, Ekiti, Akure, Ogbomosho, Owerri, Asaba, Awka, Enugu and others as some of the cities it plans to establish 60 new branches.
When fully developed and expanded, it is expected to create means of livelihood for thousands of families in the country.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja recently, the Development Director of BON Hospitality West Africa, Bernard Cassar also stated that in cities like Kwara, Ilorin, Aba, Oguta, Umuahia, Kaduna, Oyo and Maiduguri, almost 4000 rooms are undergoing construction or rehabilitation and is expected to advance in the campaign to fight insecurity through employment generation.
“As the fastest growing hotel group in Africa, and the largest in Nigeria, we manage hotels on behalf of other credible international brands alongside our own BON Hotels brand, we are partly Nigerian-owned and plan to be majority Nigerian-owned in line with our strategic intent of the ‘Survival of Africa by Africans’ and ‘Good things can come from Africa’.
“We have also launched our Hospitality Training Institute which trains Nigerians at all levels with international accreditation, and our own Technology company to ensure that the best technology is affordable and Naira-driven” he said.
The hospitality industry has been identified as one of the sectors with humongous capacity to reduce Nigerian unemployment figure which has for decades increasing surged.
The World Travel & Tourism Council estimates that the hospitality industry accounts for 10 percent of global GDP and provides 1 in 10 jobs worldwide. This suggests that one in 10 workers in Nigeria is directly or indirectly employed in the hospitality industry.
