According to Femi Akande, MD, SlimTrader, West Africa Vocation Education, Nigeria’s hospitality industry, as at last year was worth approximately N562 billion ($3 billion) and is still growing. The opportunity for growth in the coming years, he explained, is that Nigeria is in need of more hotels. With a total of 7,000 hotels for 70 million adults, in a country where there are internal travels and people coming into the country on a regular basis, the hotels the country are probably not enough.
With the industry’s considerable progress, Nnenna Onyewuchi, board member of WAVE, explained that more and more customers are beginning to demand for a better service quality in hospitality. He continued, “I think the hospitality business in Nigeria is in transition. I think the entrants of international brands have changed the game. I am certain it is why today, Nigerian customers are not ready to deal with any kind of service; they are demanding a better and courteous service.”
He explained that providing better employee quality service for the industry is where West Africa Vocation Education (WAVE) comes in, providing better customer service representatives that can talk to people, be pleasant and deal professionally and cordially with difficult customers.
So, young people with no requisite skills to be customer service representatives can learn soft skills by being trained. Nnenna Onyewuchi explained what the West Africa Vocation Education is about, “So what we have done is build a more employable pool of entry level young people in Nigeria and train them on some soft skills, because customer service is about communication, problem solving, how to deal with people, how to manage your time, how to manage difficult people, as well as more specific hot skills.”
For more information about the WAVE training programs, visit this
website.
Call: 0814 594 5405
Email: info@wavehospitality.org
