The Anambra State Commissioner for Culture, Entertainment and Tourism, Comrade Don Onyenji, has announced the state’s initiative to digitalise registration procedures within the hospitality sector in the state.
Onyenji made the announcement during a compulsory one-day Interactive Summit with hotel owners and hospitality outfits, held at the ASATU conference hall, State Government House Awka, on Friday.
The event, themed “Addressing security issues in hotels/hospitality industry.
Speaking further in his address, the Commissioner said the summit jointly organised by the State Ministry of Culture, Entertainment/Tourism, Anambra State Internal Revenue Service, Ministry of Homeland Affairs and the State Security Network, is to brainstorm on the current industry challenges, exploring emerging trends, understanding policy frameworks and unveiling collaborative opportunities within the entire hospitality value chain,” brought together key figures from the tourism and hospitality sectors in the state.
According to him, the data collections or profiling of the hotels, their staff and the guests is part of governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo’s measure put in place to checkmate the trending insecurity in the state. We are planning for a training for all the 1,100 hotels in the state. The profiling will enable the government, the community where the hotel is located and the owner of the hotel to who the guest is. We should be very sensitive with what happened around us.
“We are digitalizing all the hotels to enable us monitor their day-to-day operations. The measure is for the good of Anambra residents irrespective of tribe, ethic and religion placement.In his response, the State Chairman of Hotel Association of Nigeria, Chief Ifeanyi Nwokoye, represented at the event by his Vice, Hon Taiwo Ogunshola, assured that members of the association are ready to work cooperatively with the state government to curb the menace of insecurity in the state.
He appealed to the government to help them address the issue of poor electricity supply and multiple taxation in the state.
The event also witnessed the presence of the Deputy Governor of the Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, State Commissioner for Industry, Dr. Christian Udechukwu, SSA to governor Soludo on security/anti-cultism matters and representatives from the Police, DSS, NDLEA and the Civil Defence.
