Mr Edem Duke, the Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, says the sector has the potential to employ a lot of Nigerians if properly developed.
Duke made this known in Abuja on Tuesday when he appeared before the Sen. Ahmed Barata (PDP-Adamawa)-led Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism to defend the ministry’s 2013 budget proposal.
“The culture and tourism sector has the potential to employ everybody.
“Therefore, if for any reason we find that there is a larger number of workforce in a particular area, we are willing to sit and discuss with people about possibilities of using tourism to engage as many people as possible,” he said.
He maintained that the sector was one of the top three employers globally, adding that waiting for budgetary allocations alone would not move it forward.
According to him, the master plan of Nigeria requires resources not just from budget but also from the private sector.
“So we need to collaborate with private sector, especially with the media to advocate for the importance of mainstreaming this sector into the economy of Nigeria.’’
The minister told the committee that only N50 million was appropriated for 2012 Abuja Carnival but only N42 million was released.
According to him, a better part of the money was spent on settling bills accumulated from the 2011 Carnival.
He said to this effect, the 2012 Abuja Carnival was organised using goodwill and not necessarily cash.
Duke told the committee that the ministry had proposed N22 billion for the 2013 fiscal year out of which N150 million had been earmarked for the Abuja Carnival 2013.
He said that if the funds were released early enough, the ministry would be able to plan well ahead of time and would not encounter most of the challenges associated with late release of funds.
In his response, Barata said that the Federal Government was not interested in funding the tourism sector due to the availability of oil in the country.
He, however, said that while the oil money touched only the lives of the elite, funds from tourism impacted on the lives of the common man.
He called on the ministry to organise a retreat with relevant stakeholders in attendance to analyse the relevance of the sector to enable government to understand its relevance and increase its funding. (NAN)