Serious blow to Uganda's Tourism and Wildlife Sector
By Prof. Dr. Wolfgang H. Thome, eTN Africa Correspondent | Mar 01, 2014
The announcement on Friday by the Managing Director of the World Bank, that a loan of over 90 million US Dollars lined up for Uganda, from which in particular the tourism and wildlife sector, and specifically the national Hotel and Tourism Training Institute were to benefit, has been halted dealt a heavy blow to plans to revive the hotel school, support tourism marketing activities and benefit the wildlife sector.
‘This is a very serious development for us’ said a regular source on Saturday, when discussing the issue before continuing ‘It is not that our government was not warned of a fallout over those recent bills targeting homosexuals and wearers of miniskirts. Even you wrote some weeks ago of the potential for decampaigning us as a destination and it seems the response was sharp and swift. Whatever our politicians are trying to tell us why they made these laws, it is not in conformity with the concept of human rights and the right to choose one’s partner in life, or how to express oneself through fashion. Those politicians are deluding themselves if they think they got away with it. For once we all know those laws will now be tested before the Constitutional Court of Uganda.
I would not be surprised if the court overturns the laws on constitutional grounds. However, the damage is already done and all those plans for the school in Jinja, for the Uganda Tourism Board and for UWA are now all in suspense. We in tourism are again made the punch bag and suffer because of what government did, and for two decades for what government did not do, which was to facilitate tourism marketing and support the sector beyond those one off actionisms which benefits, in hindsight, is now completely disputed. The CNN campaign had not one bit of follow up, money wasted. Uganda Gifted by Nature was left hanging with no funds to actually fully implement it and rebrand ourselves, money wasted.
The various attempts by then Vice President Bukenya to improve the understanding for tourism, identify sectoral needs and implement remedial measures, money wasted. The EU programme which developed a tourism policy and tourism marketing strategy, never implemented, money wasted. Friend a Gorilla by UWA, such a great idea, shredded by Otafiire’s enquiries and the dismantling of UWA at the time, money wasted. I could go on but you know very well how sad the state of our industry is. This is the third time at least the school in Jinja is shafted. First when tourism had World Bank money lined up under PAMSU and the institute was overnight sent from tourism to education. Funds were withdrawn at the time because the line ministry for that project was tourism.
The second time when Education had money lined up for HTTI and again cabinet in an ill thought out action sent the institute from Education back to Tourism. Implementation of the plans halted because the funds lined up were set aside for education and not tourism. And now this is the third time as a result of those laws. I wonder what we will face in Berlin because there are some rumours that there may be protests at the Uganda stand by Germans wanting to make their point that Uganda has stepped over a red line in the sand as far as the Western world is concerned’.
Other regular sources were making it abundantly clear that they would not wish to be quoted nor wish to speak on the issue of those two laws, showing a clear trend that they fear intimidation by sycophants and other fallout would any negative comments be attributed to them, not completely out of question in view of the at times vile comments made by politicians vis a vis the gay and lesbian community and known cases where hypocrite mobs had stripped women wearing miniskirts naked without intervention by police.
It will be difficult to measure the longer term implications at this stage of the World Bank withdrawing the loan disbursal to Uganda but indications are that other bilateral development agencies, like USAID which had also lined up another phase of tourism support, Germany’s GTZ or the Nordic countries’ foreign development agencies may also withdraw funding and halt cooperation with the Uganda government to the detriment of the Ugandan people and sectoral programmes.
In view of the underfacilitation of the tourism sector by government, with what has often been described ‘pathetic budget allocations’, hardly enough to pay for recurrent expenditure like rent, salaries, utilities and perhaps a handful of key trade fair attendances, tourism may indeed stare hard times in the face, especially if active decampaigning is let loose on Uganda by gay and lesbian rights groups, and money then needed to work on those markets with sharply increased marketing budgets.
At Presidential Summit on Tourism, Duke Tasks Nigerians on Wildlife Consumption
02 Mar 2014
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Edem Duke, Tourism Minister
Olawale Ajimotokan, was at the Presidential Summit on Tourism held recently in Abuja and writes on the varied issues discussed, including an appeal to help conserve Nigeria’s endangered wildlife…
Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, has appealed to members of the public on the need to control their palate for wildlife so that the animal species in Nigeria will not go into extinction. Duke made the appeal at the recent Presidential Summit on Tourism in Abuja, designed to promote the sector as a business for employment creation, and contributor to the Nigerian economy.
His remark stemmed out of the concern that one of the reasons Nigeria is not on the tourist map is because international travellers prefer to visit the southern and eastern parts of Africa for adventure rather than Nigeria, considering the nations in those regions are naturally endowed with abundant wildlife in their national parks.
Countries like Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa are popular destinations for tourists who pay to see lions, elephants, monkeys, buffaloes, crocodiles and other animals in their natural habitat, thus deepening the economy of those countries.
The minister, who insisted that the biggest collateral asset for Nigeria is culture and adventure, agreed that uncontrolled consumption of wildlife could lead to depletion of wildlife stocks in Nigeria.
He then called for laws and advocacy that will conserve natural forests in Nigeria and make the people change their palate so that they will not be used to the taste of wildlife. The minister noted that such practice is against some international conventions that Nigeria is a global signatory to.
Duke used Rwanda which is blessed with enormous stocks of mountain gorillas as a case study. He said the government of the East African country has developed a policy through which people are enlightened and informed with proof that protecting those mountain gorillas will generate finance and foreign exchange to the country.
‘’Today, if you want to see mountain gorillas in Rwanda, you will pay $750 (about N120,000) online and have to wait for six months to be given a date and the queue is usually very long. But we have mountain gorillas in Afi Mountain, not far away from the Obudu Ranch, and our own mountain gorilla species are more pristine than the ones in Rwanda and Congo. But unless there is a policy and we are able to inform our people, we will continue to find people who will be consuming the wildlife which is going into extinction. Our people must control their palate for wildlife so that the animal species don’t run out of stock,’’ Duke appealed.
The minister also shared his thoughts on zoo and park culture in Nigeria, particularly in the Federal Capital Territory, where the National Children’s Park and Zoo is dysfunctional. He said people were interested in the park when it opened up, only for it to run into problems because the professionals were not well trained on animal management.
According to him President Goodluck Jonathan, sometime last year, established a committee to revisit the Abuja Zoo by working with a number of technical partners from the United States of America, the United Kingdom in collaboration with the Federal Capital Territory Authority.
The effort, he said will bear fruits as some countries in Africa volunteered to help in repopulating the Abuja zoo with tropical species as against those from cold regions that will not survive in our climes.
The Presidential Summit on Tourism is a partnership with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and will culminate in the national discourse to be held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on June 2.
The tourism ministry which hopes that the sector will contribute about $5 billion (about N800billion) to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year, also unfolded some of the plans and activities it will pursue in year 2014.
Some of them include:
Review of laws and regulatory framework
There will be a very radical, legal and regulatory reform in the tourism ministry where virtually all the existing laws fall short of modern requirements and can hardly assist to achieve the deliverables and its mandate. As a fallout, all the as laws relating to parastatals as well certain regulations shall be reviewed and presented to government for approval and onward transmission to the National Assembly for enactment.
Reorganisation of NTDC
The recommendation in the National Tourism Master Plan already accepted by government was for the scrapping of NTDC. However, the ministry wants a complete restructuring of NTDC to make it more proactive, more focused and more efficient- a policy which the management of the agency is already addressing.
Tourism Development Fund (TFD);
This Fund is vital for the critical development of the tourism sector. It will be launched in March 2014 and will be domiciled in the new NTDC.
Tourism Satellite Account (TSA);
It will enable the acquisition of vital statistics required for planning, budgeting and other developmental purposes. The project will be launched in 2014. The New e-Tourism Project is getting off the ground and will be very critical for the realization of the TSA.
Multiple and over taxation in tourism sector
The ministry will confront headlong the negative, retrogressive and counterproductive problem of multiple taxation and over-taxation in the hospitality sector. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) clearly understands the need to avoid the regressive policy of over taxation in an emerging but very viable sector like tourism and will be engaged to find a way to ameliorate this problem.
Student tourism
This highly educative aspect of learning which used to be part of the curricular in the past will be revived through interfacing with the Ministry of Education in 2014 as youth tourism is central to the future development of domestic tourism and national integration. This initiative will be backed by enough tourism materials such as web information, handbills and billboards as promotional materials. The private section shall also be involved especially in tertiary institutions.
Sport tourism
This is another exciting area of tourism yet to be explored and enjoyed in Nigeria. The Tourism Ministry will partner with the Ministry of Sport, the National Sports Commission, Team Nigeria Trust Fund and other stakeholders to organize the tourism aspects of sports.
Slave route tourism project;
This is to showcase national monuments, museums and heritage and develop tourism at the same time. The National Committee on Slave Route Project is chaired by Prof. J.F Ade Ajayi. The Ministry is working closely with the Committee to document all the slave route sites in Nigeria with the objective of publishing a National Reference book on Slave Routes and to develop the sites to attract tourists.
Tourism visa
This will enable tourists wishing to visit Nigeria get this special visa in order to lessen travel difficulties and make tourism in the country pleasurable and less stressful. This has been on the cards for too long and should be able to ensure that those who want to visit Nigeria do so with the least discomfort.
Ethnic mapping of Nigeria
This initiative will help to ascertain the identity, composition and locations of various ethnic groupings in Nigeria and put to sleep the controversy surrounding the correct number of ethnic groups existing in Nigeria.
National Troupe
The National Troupe will now regularly tour Nigeria and the world on a regular basis and explains why the minister gave directives that the Troupe must expand to meet future challenges.
Tags: Business, Nigeria, Featured, Summit
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