Federal Government to develop tourism sector to attract more investments.

Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Mrs. Sally Mbanefo

The Federal Government has pledged to develop the tourism sector in order to attract more investments from both local and foreign sources.

The Secretary, National Planning Commission, Mr. Ntufam Ugbo, said this during a courtesy visit to the commission by the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Mrs. Sally Mbanefo.

Ugbo pledged the commission’s support to offer technical support in the area of training, data collection, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity building in NTDC’s drive to develop the tourism sector in Nigeria.

According to statement issued by the NPC on Monday, the Secretary said the commission would assist the NTDC through the National Bureau of Statistics to capture data of visitors in flow, identify the kind of visitors they are expecting and what the visitors would want.

He stated that in the area of training, the commission would offer overseas and local training to members of staff of NTDC in a bid to reposition the corporation for better service delivery.

The Secretary also promised to assist in getting development partners to develop the potentials of the sector as this would help create jobs and reduce poverty.

Responding, Mbanefo explained that the objectives of the NTDC are to grow the tourism locally for job creation and income generation for the country, and also reinventing the Nigerian tourism sector.

She lamented that Nigeria has about 7,000 tourism sites across the country with only few of them being developed.

The DG, also stated that the security challenges in Nigeria should not serve as a discouragement to the growth of the industry noting that a country like Egypt with similar challenge still generate huge revenue from tourism.

PUNCH