NIHOTOUR, Awori Tourism Board sign MoU on training

By Dada Jackson

The Awori Tourism Board says all is set for the take-off of a tourism training institute designed to encourage youth involvement, provide employment opportunities and ensure provision of optimum service delivery in the hospitality industry.

The Chairman, Awori Tourism Board, Prince Femi Fadina, stated this in Ota, Ogun State, during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR).

Fadina noted that the signing of the MoU birthed the establishment of the first Tourism Training Institute in South-West so as to train many youths in the country on tourism and hospitality.

He pointed out that the board was prepared to change the trend of neglect of youths in the involvement of the sector, saying that it was imperative to co-opt youths in such a giant stride, so as to procure job opportunities for the teeming youths.

He disclosed that the first in line of the institute would take off in Ota with more coming up in other South-West states, adding that graduates of the school would be awarded the National Diploma and the Higher National Diploma certificate in Tourism.

He added that it would accord them the opportunity to pursue education and training up to the PhD in Tourism, stressing that the institute would offer premium and standard teaching and learning opportunities, as only the best brains would be engaged to train prospective students.

In their separate remarks, Mrs Chinyere Uche-Ibeabuchi, Zonal Coordinator, Lagos Campus, NIHOTOUR and Senior Lecturer at NIHOTOUR, Ms. Ejike Ugochi, while expressing their delight at the collaboration, said that the institute had been specifically established to provide manpower training, research and capacity building for youths and personnel in the industry.

They urged youths to embrace the formal and professional training offered only in approved organisation such as the Awori Tourism Board Training Institute.

Present at the signing of the MoU were the Chairman, Awori Tourism Board, Prince Adetunji Fadina, Association of Tourism Practitioners of Nigeria (ATPN) Board of Trustee member, Frank Meke, Business Development Executive Awori Tourism, Mrs Ronke Matanmi, Ms. Ejike Catherine Ugochi, Senior Lecturer NIHOTOUR and Mrs. Chinyere Uche-Ibeabuchi, Zonal Coordinator, Lagos Campus, NIHOTOUR.