The National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism’s (NIHOTOUR) Sustainable Tourism Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) recently trained 250 displaced Youths, indigent and widowed Women in the science, craft and business management of liquid and bar soap making.
According to a press release signed by the Special Assistant (Technical), to the DG, NIHOTOUR, Joesef Karim, the life-transforming and economically uplifting hands-on trainings of the indigent Nigerians was held between December 21st to 23rd 2022, in ten towns across Nigeria’s six-geopolitical zones.
The 250 trainees were selected from tourist host communities in Nigeria – where there are internally displaced peoples (IDPs) camps and other leading care-giving organisations that provide welfare services. The selected youths and women went through 2-day intensive and practical learning processes of making and packaging of liquid and bar soaps, detergents and disinfectants. All of which are daily used in tourism and hospitality service outlets. The trainings held in Benin, Enugu, Lagos, Oshogbo, Makurdi, Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Argungu and Bauchi.
The Sustainable Tourism Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) is a novel initiative of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) with the objective, among other things, of empowering young and displaced Nigerians with socio-economic life-transforming knowledge and entrepreneurial skills in the various value-chains of tourism and hospitality tradecrafts.
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The STEP goals are to improve tourist service delivery and equally reduce poverty in Nigeria’s tourist host communities. Accordingly, graduands of the STEP Soap Making training were given NIHOTOUR’s internationally recognized certificates and starter-packs to enable each one of them commence the making and selling of their products. Additionally, in line with the STEP Project masterplan, trainees would be given a 3-month mentoring and support systems to enable them to establish and start operating their enterprises.
The STEP project was conceived by Nura Sani Kangiwa, the Director General of National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism. The Institute subsequently commenced phased implementation of the project last December 2022. The first pilot-phased implementation of the STEP project was trainings in the making, tradecraft and business management of Duvets and Throw-Pillows. It was held from December 5th to 7th 2022 in the six-geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
It is noteworthy, that the training of 150 youths and women in making of Duvets and Throw-Pillow; and the latest training of 250 youths and women in Soap Making means that the STEP Project has trained 400 displaced Nigerians in less than one month.
The National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) is the lead tourism and hospitality personnel training and vocational skills development citadel in Nigeria. It was established in 1987 following a tripartite working agreement involving the Federal Government of Nigeria, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). NIHOTOUR currently has ten campuses and training centers across the six-geopolitical zones of Nigeria, with headquarters in Abuja.
The economic multiplier-effects of NIHOTOUR’s STEP project, in participating Tourist host communities, are evident and verifiable. The STEP project has an active internet presence with a dynamic website and several social media platforms that daily disseminate information on the activities, trainings, and recipients of the project in the six-geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
