Culture And Tourism Will Be Given Priority……Minister

                                                                                                                                                                                The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that Federal Government is planning a supplementary budget specifically targeted at closing up what it considers to be huge investment gaps in the culture and tourism industry.

He said this would stimulate growth in the sector and contribute to the government’s policy of diversifying the economy from oil to non-oil sources of income. Mohammed stated this at the National Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday. Mohammed was the first minister to speak at the sectoral debates of the House, which opened on Tuesday.The first phase of the debates had the theme, “Diversification of the Nigerian Economy.”

He addressed lawmakers in the chambers at the session, which was presided over by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara. The minister told the session that the tourism industry in the country was almost in comatose because it had been neglected over the years, owing to lack of reasonable investments. Mohammed noted that while in other countries, tourism was the mainstay of the economy, in Nigeria, the industry accounted for “less than 1.5 per cent” of the Gross Domestic Product. He argued that with a sustained investment, beginning with the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the government planned that tourism should contribute at least seven per cent of the country’s GDP. The minister however, did not state how much the supplementary budget would be, but he explained that the Federal Government wanted the sector to become an important revenue window.

For example, Mohammed said in 2015, the ministry got zero allocation for capital projects in culture and tourism.“Not one kobo was allocated to capital projects in culture and tourism in 2015.But, several billions of naira went into overheads. How do you expect the sector to develop when there is no funding and no investment in tourism infrastructure?

“No country succeeds in tourism development without massive investment in infrastructure,” he argued. Mohammed also told lawmakers that the culture and tourism ministry had suffered from a negative perception problem over time.

According to him, people consider posting to the place as not being “juicy” like the ministries of petroleum resources, finance and works. The minister added that members of staff deployed to work in the culture and tourism ministry desperately sought to be transferred to other ministries because of the perception problem.“But we need to change this perception and we are seriously working on this,” he said.