The federal government is to celebrate with the South Africa to determine the inflow of tourists to the country. The government has also evolved a strategic initiative with the private sector to develop infrastructure for the tourism sector, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, has said.

Answering questions at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja, Kayode said that the initiative was borne out of government’s desire to implement the Nigeria tourism master plan.

The tourism master plan, launched in 2007, provides the road map for the revival of the sector to enable it to contribute to the country’s GDP.

Kayode said that government, through the initiative known as the Tourism Business Support Group (TBSG), would be sourcing more than N4 billion to provide, upgrade and rehabilitate facilities for the sector.

Kayode said that the initiative which would be wholly private sector-driven, but supervised by government, was expected to also provide funding support to small scale players in the tourism industry.

“The TBSG is to enable us to break into the big business of tourism,” he told NAN said.

He said that the TBSG would comprise of top bankers and businessmen and would be listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange.

Kayode said that discussions had started between stakeholders, the CBN and the Bankers Committee to explore opportunities of raising funds to provide the facilities.

He said that the ultimate goal of the initiative was to position Nigeria as a global conference tourism destination with first class facilities that could host any conference.

The minister said that 50,000 hotel rooms were needed for Abuja to position the city as a conference destination, stressing that the city at present had only 7,500 hotel rooms.

“We must dream big dreams; we must have a vision for the sector in order to attract tourists into the country,” the minister said.

He said that the services of the South African government had been enlisted to assist the country in the grading and classification of hotels.

“Today in Nigeria, we don’t have any graded hotel nor the capacity to know how many tourists enter the country and the revenue generated from tourism,” he said.

He said that the collaboration with South Africa would also lead to the training of the requisite manpower in the country to operate the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA).

The TSA, Kayode said, would enable Nigeria to determine the inflow of tourists.