The National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) has signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), signalling a new era of data-driven development for Nigeria’s hospitality, travel, and tourism industry.
The agreement aims to tackle the long-standing challenge of unreliable and fragmented data, which has hindered planning, investment, and sector growth for years. By collaborating on improved data collection, analysis, and dissemination, both agencies hope to strengthen tourism intelligence and position the industry as a more competitive contributor to national development.
Under the partnership, NIHOTOUR and NBS will jointly gather and analyse data across key tourism segments, including accommodation, transportation, events and recreation, culinary tourism, destination experiences, and hospitality workforce trends. The agencies will also produce official research outputs to support policymakers, investors, professionals, and development partners in making informed decisions.
Capacity building is another major component of the agreement, alongside the creation of a shared tourism intelligence system designed to deepen planning, forecasting, and regulatory efficiency across the sector.
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Describing the MoU as a watershed moment, Aare Fagade, Director-General of NIHOTOUR, said the partnership would give the industry the statistical backbone it has long lacked.
“Reliable data is the backbone of meaningful progress. With this MoU, we are paving the way for smarter investments, better training, and a more globally competitive tourism industry,” he said.
Statistician-General of the Federation and NBS CEO, Prince Adeyemi, affirmed the bureau’s commitment to supporting sectors with high potential for national impact.
“This collaboration ensures that the hospitality, travel, and tourism sector will now benefit from the same level of statistical rigour applied to other critical industries,” he said.
The partnership comes ahead of Nigeria’s festive season — typically the peak period for domestic travel and tourism. NIHOTOUR and NBS plan to track visitor flows, spending patterns, workforce mobility, and overall sector performance during this period to help operators, destination managers, and state governments improve service delivery and planning.
The MoU aligns with broader national strategies to diversify the economy, expand non-oil revenue, and strengthen professional standards within the tourism value chain. By merging NIHOTOUR’s capacity-development mandate with NBS’s statistical expertise, the partnership lays the groundwork for a more sustainable, inclusive, and globally competitive tourism industry in Nigeria.
