President Muhammadu Buhari has declared open the 61st meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organization Commission for Africa (UNWTO-CAF) in Abuja, and has invited tourists and investors to consider Nigeria as their second home.
The president, who was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation,Mr. Boss Mustapha, said his administration has attractive investment incentives for investors in the tourism sector, including minimum tariff on imported tourism equipment, amusement park equipment and materials for hotel construction and furnishing, dedicated transportation for tour operators and equipment for restaurants not manufactured in Nigeria, work permit for foreign workers with specialized skills within the industry and land at concessionary rate by state governments to tourism investors.
Buhari said the administration, having identified the tourism sector as one of the pillars of its diversification policy, is also investing heavily in infrastructure and human resource development in order to make Nigeria a choice destination for tourists.
‘’In our efforts at diversifying the economy through agriculture, solid minerals development and tourism, we are investing heavily in infrastructure.
“This administration has injected $9 billion to strengthen its investment in power, roads, railway in the past two years alone.
‘’Also, this government is investing in human resource development through the introduction of the Social Investment Programme that has benefitted nine million people.
“These programmes include our Home-Grown School Feeding Programme that is providing one meal a day to 7.4 million pupils in 22 states; N-Power programme that has employed 200,000 university graduates and is about to employ 300,000 more; the Conditional Cash Transfer under which some 297,973 poor homes are receiving 5,000 Naira monthly, and the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme that has provided loans to hundreds of thousands of small business owners,’’ Buhari said.
The president also hailed the “creative young talents’’ that have made Nigerian music and films the toast of the world.
He said for Nigerian youths, “the best is yet to come.”