NTDC Needs To Be Properly Funded – Committee

The House of Representatives Committee on Tourism and Culture, has stressed the need to appropriate more funds for the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) to acquire a befitting structure.

Rep. Sokonte Davies, made the remarks when he led members of the committee on a visit to the corporation’s headquarters in Abuja on Monday, as part of their over sight functions.

He said the corporation needed a bigger space to be able to project the country’s tourism potential internationally.

“The corporation needs more space to be able to display the country’s potential to be appreciated, but when the potential are concealed, they might not be appreciated as they should.

“We need to promote tourism because many countries live mostly on tourism,” Davies said.

He said that hotels and other organisations in the hospitality industry should have tourism desks to help promote the country’s tourism and generate foreign exchange.

Davies said the corporation was the flagship in the quest to develop the country’s tourism sector and urged all the stakeholders to harness and develop their products with a view to attracting more tourists into the country.

He said the visit was part of their statutory functions to monitor what government agencies were doing with the money appropriated for them.

Davies promised to do all that was within the powers of the committee to make sure that tourism served its purpose in the country.

Earlier, the Director General of NTDC, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, had said that the corporation was ready to sell tourism as one of the country’s major products, pointing out that the visit had opened a new chapter for the sector.