Hotel Owner in Debt- Generators Siezed

Mirage Hotel owned by the immediate past minister of culture and tourism, Chief Edem Duke has been in debt of N52M. According to reports by Punch. Cross River state high court in Calabar ordered the seizure of four of the hotel generators.

Reports says that the four generators were on Monday removed from the premises of the hotel in Calabar, the state capital by Sypet Oil and Chemical Limited.

The hotel failed to settle the bill of N52M which had increased from October 30, 2014 to August 29, 2016. The issue resulted from outstanding bill owed; as a result of judgement delivered in October 2014 by the preceding judge of the State High Court in Calabar, Justice Ofem ordered the hotel to pay the sum of N2.93M to Sypet Oil and Chemical Limited as balance payment for Automotive Gas and Oil (Diesel) that was supplied to the hotel for usage on the facility.

Punch reports that the hotel failed to settle the debt forcing the Oil company to approach the court for a garnishee order to enforce the judgement in July.

As a result of this, the payment have still not being made because accroding to report, Utang, The company solicitor said," This discovery has prompted us to effect judgement by carting away the generators which could be sold after seven days to settle the debt"

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Reasons Why Hotels are Expensive in Nigeria

There has been lots of skepticism relating to the reasons why hotels are expensive in Nigeria.Lots of foreigners come into the country and make the same complaints, Nigerians travel out of the country and come back to give the same complaints. The question is why?

According to Vanguard Newspaper, it reported that An hotel consultant, Gbnenga Oladele in a chat said hotels rely on diesel powered generators which costs fortunes, coupled with the fact that there is a major issue with electricity supply in Nigeria.

According to reports, he said, " if i have one guest in my hotel, I need to supply electricity. Some hotels prepared their budget for this year on N135 per litre for diesel, but today diesel is being sold in the range of N245. The question is where do you put the extra cost? Is it on rooms or food?

He also said, the issue of multiple taxes ia also another problem, which needs to be resolved before the cost of hotel in the country can be addressed.

"The government that is supposed to be helping hotel business is killing the sector with excess taxes. In Lagos, you have the consumption tax after the VAT. How do you expect business to survive when one has to pay different taxes?

He also added, "but with the way things are going, businesses are finding it tough to cope, while unemployment is increasing."

From my perspective, hotel business in Nigeria is lucrative but within the last couple of months to a year now, it's getting tougher, hotels are being shut down because they can't afford to pay this so called TAX, some can't meet up to the competition, others can't afford to pay staff. Everything boils down to ridiculous tax demand, high cost of energy, poor customer service from staff; simply because hotels can't hire personnel with good work experience, they would rather go for the poorly educated ones that will accept the poor salary they are offering, lack of good infrastructures in the country, high NEPA bill.....

There has to be a solution for us to enjoy the hotel business and for the job to get into the hands of those truly qualified to handle it.

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