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How cross border trade hurts Nigeria’s travel trade, five offshore firms under FG’s watch
- Minister supports initiative to boost sector
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo said the Federal Government would support initiative that would help boost the country’s travel trade.
The Minister who was represented by the Director of Special Duties OF Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr. Henry Agbebire at the 49th Annual General Meeting of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) in Lagos on Wednesday said the summit would the travel industry particularly they continue to navigate a rapidly evolving global travel landscape.
He noted that the summit was coming at a period all efforts must be channeled collaboration, regulation, and shared responsibility in safeguarding the integrity and sustainability of Nigeria’s travel and tourism ecosystem.
“We recognize the role of travel agencies as critical partners in the air travel value chain and remain committed to creating an enabling environment for your operations to thrive,” he stated.
In a related development, President of NANTA, Mr. Yinka Afolami disclosed that the Federal Government and NANTA were working to halt cross border trading; a situation that makes travel agents overseas to trade unregulated in the country’s travel trade market.
The NANTA President at the AGM, themed, “Collective Prosperity Through Market Protection”, further stated that five of the offshore travel agents have already been charged for cross border trading as government plans to charge them also with money laundry.
He said, “Government has asked us to strategically stop the trade crime. Our members should stop engaging them. We must self regulate. We must have a robust constitution”.
Explaining what amounts to cross border trading, Afolami said it happens when a foreign registered travel agent sell tickets emanating from Nigeria and funds emanating from the transaction are domiciled in another country.
Another form of cross border trade is when local travel agencies in Nigeria connive with foreign agents to engage in the unlawful act.
He lamented that more than 40% of the market is lost; a situation he said portends grave danger to employment and growth of the sector,
Afolami said, “Cross border sales is a sin and disrespectful to our economy. Government has asked us to present the names of the culprits. We have five names that have been mentioned. The country is investigating them for money laundering. We will stop it. We should also stop buying from them.”
He said the tickets sold by these cross border traders are often cheaper, adding that NANTA is investigating how these agents from other countries get cheap tickets for Nigerian market.
He said there is a need for the association to come together to build a robust constitution, engage in self regulation and heed to advice from NANTA founders on tacking the issue.
Speaking on some or the achievements of NANTA, Folami said NANTA has shown conduct, respect and knowledge and has ensured that its point of sale does not shift, it distributes wealth and engage in self regulation
“We made airlines confirm to us that they are principals to us and so the airlines should not be seen to be in competition with us. The airlines are very responsive to us. What we have done in the last six years is that we have set up committees and a key committee is the constitution review committee. The training committee is also doing very well. We are relaunching the ID cards and website today. We are also launching our NANTA mobile app,” he said.
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