Why fed govt must fund aviation, tourism sector

Managing Director/Chief Executive of Topaz Travel and Tours Limited, Mrs. Susan Akporiaye is currently the National President of National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA). In this interview with Obinna Nnorom, she identifies challenges confronting the industry and urged the federal government to approve separate funding for the sector as the worst affected by the pandemic, grants and tax holiday among others. Excerpts:   

Covid-19 is presently ravaging the whole world including, what’s the impact of this pandemic on the nation’s travel industry?

Airport hall

Travel agency is one of the most important organisations in the tourism private sector which plays a significant and crucial role in the entire process of developing and promoting tourism in the country or at a destination. It is the travel agency which packages and processes all the attractions, accesses, amenities and ancillary services of a country and presents them to tourists. That is why travel agencies are referred to as ‘image builder ‘of a country.

It is a known fact that our industry is the worst hit by the covid-19 pandemic. It has been a total shut down resulting in zero income for our members for the past 3 months and counting. Our staff are currently on un-paid leave, the economic situation impacting the Travel Agencies community is severe, and a lot of our members may not survive the pandemic.

There is the risk of losing our businesses which is our source of livelihood, from recent data gathered in April 2020, Nigeria happens to be the second hardest hit country in Africa with 4.7 million fewer travelers resulting in N386.10 billion revenue loss, risking 125,400 jobs and N347.10 billion in contribution to Nigeria economy.  These are based on a situation of severe travel restrictions lasting for three months, with a gradual lifting of restrictions in domestic markets, followed by regional, and intercontinental. Estimated loss of ticket sales for quarter one 2020 compares to same period in 2019 is NGN44.65 billion.

Due to the effects of the lockdown, NANTA reported that the industry had lost about N180 billion and asked the Federal Government for interest-free loan to enable its members cushion the effect; has the FG responded to your call?

The Federal Government as of today has put up N50 billion low interest loans for the small and medium enterprises (SME’s) in all sectors. As laudable as this is, I believe there is still a lot to be done. These includes approving  separate funding for the travel and tourism industry as the worst affected industry by the pandemic, other types of palliatives such as grants and tax holiday among others. The FG is responding to our calls and we will like that this engaging process is followed through so that we achieve the desired goals, travel agency needs government’s intervention fund.

The Federal Government recently announced a worrisome report that a 39.4 million Nigerians might suffer job loss before the meeting and of this year due to Covid-19 effects, what is your take?

Obudu Resort

I agree with you that the figures are quite worrisome, this is the reason why the federal government should take seriously and as a matter of urgency, our call for intervention by coming up with good palliatives this will mitigate the job loss figures without this mitigation the government might just be faced with the crisis of unemployment in the country.

Judging by the figure which youth’s age-bracket would be most affected, what are the implications to the nation should the prediction occur?

In my opinion it will be basically the middle class, which is from the teens to the mid-forties. This bracket covers both the formal and informal sectors. The implications will be grave. We are talking about increase in the poverty index of the country, reduced income which translates to reduce spending, increased crime rate among others.

What steps should the government take to avert the looming job loss and how best can we tackle future pandemics?

A very practical step the federal government can take to avert the looming job losses is to support organisations/corporations creatively, ranging from soft loans, grants, and tax holidays among others. This will discourage corporations from considering the options of downsising.

The Nigeria aviation and tourism sectors reportedly lost N400 billion to Covid-19 starting from the lockdown, what would you propose as the recovery plan for the sectors? 

I do not know if recovery is the right word. The reason being that recovery is a word you use when the general conditions are right and an organization is not faring well and needs to review their strategy in other to recover from their losses. However, this is not the case. Under covid-19, the general conditions are not right. It is not really about the operational strategy of the aviation and tourism sector that is the issue. I would look at it from the perspective of preparedness of the sector to do business under the demands that Covid-19 has brought upon us. This will determine how quickly businesses will thrive.

Would NANTA be among the beneficiaries of the cash palliatives the Federal Government recently announced to Dave the SME’s from Covid-19 knockout.

Yes, NANTA members are among the beneficiaries. However, it is a loan that will be paid back and the fund is for SME’s across all sectors and individuals. Considering the nature of the demand, it will be very difficult to get approval for what one might really need and this is so because the fund is insufficient to address the needs for all SME’s and individuals in Nigeria

What strategies have your members adopted to remain in business amid the pandemic disease?

The associations have been engaging our members in series of discussions in this area. We continue to encourage our members to think outside the box and look inwards to tap into opportunities that will generate income during the pandemic, embracing collaboration and diversification. The association has set up a training committee to come up with a training calendar for members on different areas such as post covid-19 business development strategy, customer relations, staff managements, developing domestic tourism among others.

We understand that NANTA postponed its annual general meeting (AGM) for this year, how can the meeting hold considering the social distance guidelines approved by the federal government to contain Covid-19?

Yes, our 2020 AGM was postponed and a new date is yet to be scheduled. Under the federal government conditions put in place to tackle the spread of Covid-19, one of which is the prohibition of large gatherings and as a law abiding association that believe in keeping safe, it won’t be possible for us to hold our AGM under the current conditions. We will have to wait until these restrictions are lifted.

What role is technology playing in driving your business when you consider social distancing against Covid-19?

We are not new to technology as a matter of fact our business is run on the back technology. The only new technology we have come to embrace is the emergence of online business meetings via applications such as zoom, webex, Microsoft team, Gsuite, GoogleMeet, and Skype etc. The trainings I mentioned earlier is scheduled via the online platform.

Covid-19 has brought in a new phrase, ‘New-Normal’ both in individual/corporate lives to live with the virus pending discovery of treatment, vaccines, how prepared are the travel agents in Nigeria to stay in business?

I must say we are very prepared. Like I said earlier, we have been engaging our members in discussions, equipping them with information on the way their business should be structured in the new normal that we have found ourselves. Trainings and collaborations are on-going; we have been doing this for that past 3 months and counting so we are very prepared.

What lessons are there for us in Nigeria to learn from Covid-19?

This is a very interesting question. Covid-19 has taught us a lot and in some cases reminded us of the things we already knew but have neglected, ranging from life lessons to financial lessons but I will just mention a few.

There has been a reminder of appreciating and giving time to the most important things in life such as family and friends. Staying at home has been difficult but we should be willing to trade some of our freedom for the greater good. Having the culture of saving for the rainy day or emergency is an asset.