Hotel owners in Lagos State, under the umbrella of Hotel Owners and Managers Association of Lagos [HOMAL] have called on the state government to demand palliatives for its members.
HOMAL made the appeal in a press conference held yesterday at Eko Hotels and Suites in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Making the call through Chief Samuel Alabi, it’s Chairman, the association said the hospitality sector deserves special interventions for diverse reasons, following the devastation Coronavirus pandemic that has inflicted on the tourism industry in the state since March.
Alabi said, “No one could ever imagine that the economic activities will almost be totally grounded as from the month of March.
“In response to government lockdown policy, our members were compelled to:
Cancel all confirmed bookings for rooms, banqueting, conferencing and related activities; decline further reservations of rooms, banqueting and conferencing events; place some of our workers out of duty and retain adequate numbers of staff to ensure the safety of their property and maintain the equipment and machinery that could not be shut down for a considerable long period of time”.
He reeled out the resultant effects of all these to include: contractual obligations, in form of continued financial exposure to employees emoluments, and suppliers whose supplied items could not be used due to their perishable nature; continuous exposure to payment of utility bills, waste clearance bills among others; costs incurred in special cleaning and disinfecting of the rooms and premises and
loss of revenue and inability to meet with various existing finances and costs of constant cleaning of the premises.
As a major contributor to the Gross Domestic Product [GDP] of many nations, Nigeria not being an exception, the sector had given a good account of its relevance in view of its strategic positions to the socio-economic development of the state and Nigeria.
Alabi highlighted areas of contribution to include: Revenue generation to all the three tiers of government in form of taxes, levies and charges, employment opportunities either directly or indirectly, contribution to infrastructural development in their areas of operations, training and manpower development of hoteliers in accordance with international standard and corporate social responsibilities in their host communities.
Based on this, Alabi stated that hospitality industry is in the frontline sector in Lagos state, as hotels, restaurants and allied business have become major pivotal of economic activities in the state, that it has, therefore, become important for the government to come to the aid of this most important sector to avert major economic upheavals.
“Hotels are in many areas of Lagos state. There is hardly a major road in Lagos metropolis without one or two hotels adorning their environment. While banks and some other institutions are merging every now and then, hotels continued to spring up in every locality of the State.
“No doubt, the hospitality sector is labour intensive. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic era, close to a million people were deriving income from our members’ business. Going by the large number of employees that could be affected by their paucity of funds, failure to receive government palliatives could result in a massive loss of jobs and the resultant increase in crime rate in the state,” he further added.
However, Alabi regretted that during the lockdown and even under the relaxed lockdown regime, manufacturing, banking, and some other key sectors of the economy were allowed to continue in operations subject to certain guidelines, while all hotels and restaurants were mandated to close down. This abrupt closure he pointed out had engendered total loss of revenue on members’ part.
And that in terms of revenue generation, it is only from Hotels and related business activities that Lagos State Government was able to latch on for revenue generation.
The president explained that going by the provision of the 1999 Constitution as amended, and confirmed by the Supreme Court, the regulation of hotels and allied business is within the competence of the state.
While recognising that banking, manufacturing, and many other sectors are no go areas for state revenue generation, he said the Ministry of tourism no longer exists at the federal level and therefore, the resuscitation and success of their members’ business now lies with the Lagos State Government.
The association suggested to the state that, to bring their members back to business, it should create Tourism Development Funds to Fund reopening expenses, repurchase existing loans that could not be serviced due to cessation of revenue from their business, deep cleaning and sanitisation, expand staff bus fleets to comply with social distancing in the vehicles, acquire walk –in – temperatures scanners, modify the association’s F&B and other guests’ service points, acquire more small operating equipment in line with modified service arrangements, to re-stock the operating items, staff training to meet the health and safety standard as may be required in view of the pandemic situation and purchase of safety kits and materials for the use of staff, guests and visitors.
Others areas it made demands are that the state should postpone payment of Land use charge till 2021, Lagos Waste Management Authority [LAWMA] charges should be suspended from March till when COVID -19 ends, repayment of salaries paid to their employees or being owed them from March till when normalcy returns to the hospitality business climate, suspension of LASA Advertisements rates till 2021, refund all utilities, internet and DSTV charges incurred during the pandemic period, suspension of Hotel Renewal fees till 2021, the suspension of application of HOARC Tax till the end of the year, as from January 2021 the HOARC should be administered in the like manner of Value Added Tax [VAT] whereby inputs would be allowed from the tax due, postponement of Safety Permit, Water regulatory fee, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency [LASEPA] Fees and charges and other State Government agencies levies and charges, direct the Local Government to suspend the collection of the following till 2021.
Liquor license, radio/TV license, entertainment/merriment charge, food storage permit, and any other Local government charges are also part of the demands.
Commending the federal government for the lifting of restriction on the operation of hotels and restaurants within the hotel, and pledging support to the state government intends to combat the spread of Coronavirus in the state, the association frowned at the state government’s proposal regarding the reopening of hotels dubbed ‘Register to Reopen’.
“Our members’ attention has been drawn to Lagos State Government proposal regarding the reopening of hotels dubbed ‘Register to Reopen’, however, our members are not willing to be subjected to rigorous bureaucratic and cost-laden reopening exercise.
We propose that the government should release reopening protocols as done for manufacturing, retail shops, banks, and other sectors that were allowed even under the relaxed restriction regime for compliance by our members.
“Going by the large numbers of hotels in Lagos, many of our members feared that it will not come to their turn weeks after being granted permission to reopen their business.
“We hope the government will accede to our request in the overall interest of the economic development of Lagos State”, it stated.
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