President of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agents (NANTA), Mr. Bankole Bernard, says the association has successfully worked with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in the last one year to curb the menace of counterfeit travel agencies in the country.
Bernard who spoke at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association held in Lagos recently lamented the infiltration of the travel agency industry by charlatans and fraudsters noting that their presence had dented the image of genuine practitioners and also led to loss of confidence by the public.
Bernard said the launch of the electronic NANTA ID Card in 2018 in partnership with the NCAA had assisted in separating genuine and fake travel agents. According to him, the ID Card which has received great support from Embassies, Nigerian Immigration and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, has enabled a lot of individual travellers and corporate organisation to carry out transactions with genuine travel agents.
“This singular act, the biometric ID card linked to the agents bank BVN and to the NCAA has reduced the number of counterfeit travel agencies around, but has not completely eliminated them,” said Bernard.
“But we hope with the measures put in place, we would have an almost perfect downstream sector with special emphasis on sharing of information and data within this industry,” he added.
Bernard said in the last one year, the emphasis by the leadership of the association has been mainly on advocacy and the enactment of its legislative bill (the NANTA Act). He said the bill has moved in the lower house to the point of its consideration for a third reading.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Director eneral of the National Council for Art and Culture, Mr. Segun Runsewe called for the development of the country’s culture industry.
Runsewe noted that globally culture provides a major content for the development and growth of aviation and tourism sectors. He therefore demanded that adequate attention be paid in the marketing and promotion of Nigeria’s cultural products and tourism destinations by travel agents and airlines as that is the trend in most of the developed and developing economies.