NIGERIA; Nigeria Has Highest Room Rates In Africa

Revenue from hotel occupancy in Nigeria is expected to hit $401 million (about N80.2 billion) this year, Jovago, Africa’s largest hotel booking portal, has projected. Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Kushal Dutta, disclosed this at a breakfast meeting with the media in Lagos.

Dutta, who advocated greater attention from government to boost the industry growth, also maintained that the figure would further rise to $442 million (N88.4 billion) by the end of 2017.

He said: “Although, we expect the sector to grow by double-digit rates in 2018-19, we also foresee a periodic drop in the short-term.

For the long term period, we expect the situation to improve as we record a 6.6 per cent compound annual rate to 2.2 million rooms in 2019 from 1.6 million rooms in 2014.”

He explained that with Nigeria having the highest room rates in Africa, it is expected that the prices will keep growing with projected increases averaging 2.7 per cent compounded annually over the next four years.

Also, he said the number of hotel rooms would more than double during the next five years with that growth occurring predominantly in Lagos. He said: “There will be an estimated 10, 000 rooms in 2017, up from 8, 800 in 2014, a 20.7 per cent compound annual increase.

This increase will be well below the expected growth in room availability and occupancy rates will plunge, falling to 25.3 per cent by 2018 before edging up to 26.8 per cent in 2019.”

According to him, while there are still a lot of latent opportunities in the Nigeria’s hospitality and tourism industry, the government has yet to give the industry the attention it is required.