……Pleads To Govt For Survival Patronage
Unimproved power supply in the country and alarming rate of kidnapping have added to the negative effects that Covid-19 pandemic had on the economy of the Country.
The Proprietor of a popular hotel in Ado- Ekiti,Prosperous Royal Hotels and Resort , Mr. Abiodun Isinkaiye, who gave the submission stated that hospitality business is finding it tough in consequence of Pandemic, shortage of electricity and criminal activities which bother on abduction.
The Owner of Prosperous Hotel spoke with newsmen on Monday as part of the activities l commemorating the 2021 annual public lecture and Awards presentation, by Nigeria Union of Journalists ,Correspondents’ Chapel, Ekiti Council, slated for October 28, in Ado Ekiti.
He called on government to mitigate the unfavorable effects by adequately patronizing the Hotel owners added that the hospitality if well attended to by government would curb unemployment in the country.
Isinkaiye also called on the government of President Muhammadu Buhari and the state governors to device modalities for panacea in order to curtail the untowards experience bedeviling the business environment.
He said: “Management of hotels business had always been a problem in Nigeria in view of epileptic electricity supply we have been facing for long. We rely on diesel as a source of power, which reduces our profit margin because power supply has to run for 24 hours to give our customers comfort.
“As we were still trying to cope with that, the Covid 19 and kidnapping reared their ugly heads. The two had really affected hospitality business in Nigeria negatively, in fact, we can’t quantify the hardship that we are facing in the sector, it is of highest order.
“Since the two started in full force, business environment has changed. The number of visitors to our facilities have reduced, fearing that they could be kidnapped or contracted Covid 19 virus.
“When those who are visiting the state from the government or corporate world are to be five, the management will cut down the number to two because of these problems and these are the people we rely mostly for patronage.
“Except we are deceiving ourselves, it has not been easy with the operators of this business in recent time. Again, though we are not getting many visitors and the few ones we get must be safe and secured , and this makes us to also invest more in providing security so that our visitors won’t be kidnapped.
“The government also is enforcing Covid 19 compliant in all facilities. We are investing more monies buying sanitisers and other facilities that are making safety protocols easier, which gulped huge amount of money and constituting huge burden to us”.