It is so exciting! Hard Rock has chosen Lagos as its second city in sub-Saharan Africa to open one of its iconic Hard Rock Cafes! OK, so Johannesburg beat us to it, but that’s a long way away, and this is right here, in Victoria Island, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I went to the opening party of the Café on Friday night, and the place was buzzing, just like any other Hard Rock Café anywhere in the world. I don’t mean to sound surprised, honest, but to see an investor taking the plunge into this market at a time when the economy ain’t what it used to be, is a really welcome surprise!
There’s a couple of small “tweaks” to the operation, to take into account the local environment – the menu has some Nigerian dishes on it, and the music is more hip-hop than New Orleans blues (available by request!), but all in all it is the real deal.
Lagos is a massive city, 20 million people some estimate, but the restaurant scene isn’t that,well, exciting. Take just 1 per cent of the total population as your target market, and that’s a lot of people, who like to eat out. Granted, Lagos has come a long way since I first arrived here25 years ago, when the only “international” restaurants outside of hotels were Chinese or Lebanese. Today, most cuisines can be found in town, many more (good) Chinese restaurants, which the local market really likes, as well as Indian, Japanese, Mexican, steak, fish and the rest. Fast food joints, or in the industry’s jargon quick service restaurants (QSR) abound, with international brands such as KFC, Johnny Rockets, Barcelos, Steers, Spur, Dominos and others competing with local (and well-established) brands such as Mr Biggs, Sweet Sensation, Chicken Republic and Kilimanjaro.
And there are several home delivery services, such as HelloFood.com and NaijaEats.com, which enable us to avoid the traffic! They get pretty good reviews on line, and the delivery charges are typically minimal (1 or 2 dollars on average).
Hard Rock Café is the first global chain to enter the Lagos full-service restaurant market, but we’ve had Rhapsody’s, a South African chain, for some time (they also have a restaurant in Accra). Many independent restaurants come and go, sometimes because the rent shoots up on renewal, and sometimes because they’re not very, well, exciting! I’ve noticed that the menus can be pretty similar, and the prices charged are over the top for what you received, both the food and the experience.
It’s not easy operating in Nigeria, a lot of the food of the quality you need to operate a high-end restaurant cannot be imported, and many items are not made/grown locally. Most are available, at a price, but it is a moot point as to which side of the law you are on if you buy and sell banned imports.Trained staff are hard to find, and tend to be transient, just passing through the industry, constantly on the lookout for a cushy 9 to 5 job. Taxes are high, and there are numerous licences. There is even a Merriment Tax levied by local government’s on anyone holding a party in Lagos State, of about US$50 a time. This is truly a case of “If it moves, tax it. If it doesn’t move, tax it. Otherwise, you’re exempt!”.
But Hard Rock Café have cracked it (gosh, I hope they paid their MT!), with a product quite different from anywhere else, as have all the other international brands mentioned above. Let’s hope for more, we’re ready and waiting for you!
Trevor Ward
W Hospitality Group, Lagos
trevor.ward@w-hospitalitygroup.com
I’m just back from the International Hotel Investment Forum, held every year in Berlin, just before ITB. I’ve been every year since it started back in 1998, that’s 16 times, and I still wouldn’t be able to find my way around the city – it’s the classic airport-hotel-conference venue-hotel each time! If only life would slow down a bit, but that doesn’t seem likely any more, does it? The older we get, the busier we are. Mobile phones and the e-mail have got a lot to answer for!
Anyway, the point is that the IHIF started out as a European-focused event, but is now very much international, and that includes Africa, which is featuring more and more on the programme, and in the delegate mix. I was proud to be one of 11 attendees from Nigeria at IHIF this year, and I spotted Ghanaians, South Africans and Zimbabweans there as well. That’s not all – no fewer than three African Ministers of Tourism were there, from Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria!
Whilst in Berlin we held the Advisory Board meeting for the Africa Hotel Investment Forum, to be held in Nairobi in September – and two of the Ministers attended that as well! It is seriously pleasing that we are hosting these Ministers, so that the hotel industry gets the attention from government.
We launched our Hotel Chain Development Pipeline Survey 2013 in Berlin, our annual survey which tracks what deals the international and regional chains have signed in Africa. At the Advisory Board we discussed the difficulties faced by hotel developers trying to get new hotels built and open for business, some of which the tourism ministers can solve themselves, and some of which need lobbying at the highest level in government.
Our 2013 Survey shows that, in the sample of 29 chains who contributed this year, the number of hotels is up from 177 signed deals in 2012 to 207 deals at the beginning of this year, and an increase in the number of rooms from 34,000 to almost 40,000, an increase of over 16 per cent. This is at a time when data produced by STR show an increase of just 4 per cent in the European pipeline and 8.6 per cent in Asia-Pacific.
Nigeria and Egypt lead the way in the number of rooms in signed deals, with approximately 7,500 rooms each. However, Egypt has far more rooms actually under construction – 85 per cent of the pipeline, compared to 44 per cent in Nigeria. South Africa has just 1,320 new rooms in eight hotels signed by the international chains – perhaps a reflection that the 2010 hangover is still having a dampening effect on hotel development there.
Hilton Worldwide lead the field, with their Hilton, Doubletree and Garden Inn brands, in terms of the number of rooms in new signed deals, closely followed by Carlson Rezidor, with Radisson Blu, Park Inn by Radisson and Missoni. Hilton also lead in terms of brand, with 5,900 rooms in the pipeline, with Carlson Rezidor’s Radisson Blu second at about 4,200 rooms.
Noticeably, and as discussed in my recent article, the South African chains are still being left behind, and whilst the likes of Protea and Southern Sun may dominate their home market, it is clear that they are not going to be the leaders elsewhere in Africa, where the international chains are forging ahead, at least as far as signed deals are concerned.
Several of the international hotel chains now have business development executives based in Africa, and their efforts are paying off. And not only are they signing agreements, but they are also working harder to get the deals done, by assisting with financing hotel development. Not necessarily totally with their own balance sheets, but through multi-party funds, such as Carson Rezidor’s Afrinord, which can provide mezzanine finance to fill that last, difficult gap in the funding structure. Two other international chains are currently raising their own fund, or committing to funds being established by equity players.
The time has never been better to work in Africa, and it is clear that the international hotel chains are entering the market strongly, not just reacting to enquiries but actively making those deals work, taking advantage of the social and economic metrics that point to massive growth in Africa’s economy.
Those investment conferences, in Berlin, Nairobi and elsewhere in Africa, are contributing to the development of the African hotel industry, by bringing together investors, operators and, yes, Ministers of Tourism, to enhance understanding of the industry, and to encourage new deals.
See you in Nairobi?!
Trevor Ward
W Hospitality Group, Lagos
trevor.ward@w-hospitalitygroup.com
I drove (my goodness, two words in and I’ve lied already! I don’t drive anymore around Lagos, the colour of my skin is irresistible to our brave boys in blue/black/khaki, even pink sometimes, and it just got too expensive) from Ikoyi to Victoria Island (both districts of Lagos) the other day, a journey of about 15 minutes, and I counted no fewer than 5 new restaurants and bars that had opened up over the Christmas and New Year period, plus two more due to open at any time. Wow! One company, Ebele Enunwa’s Kilimanjaro has opened three restaurants on VI within the space of just two months! That’s confidence in this market for you, big time.
What’s driving this massive investment in eateries? I reckon there are two main factors. First, it’s the hassle and expense of eating at home. Young people living alone (I mean without domestic help) don’t want to cook, and in many instances don’t know how to. Power outages, which necessitate running a generator with increasingly expensive diesel, and the problems of keeping your fridge and freezer cool, having all the necessary ingredients in the cupboard, equipment and so on, and then there’s the washing up! There are some compelling reasons for going out.
Second, and not unconnected with the first, there’s the growth of the middle class. According to the African Development Bank, over one third of the continent’s population are middle class, and 5 per cent are “rich class”. Whilst the definition of “middle class” has a rather low threshold, at around US$4,000 per year in Purchasing Power Parity terms (“rich” is above US$20 per day), the concept holds true, that this segment of the population has been growing rapidly, at a rate of 3.1 per cent per year between 1980 and 2010, compared to 2.6 per cent for the entire population of the continent.
Extrapolating these figures to Lagos’ 15 million+ inhabitants – and it is likely that the proportion of residents of this megacity in the “middle and rich classes” is higher than the continent’s average – means that there is a middle class population out there of around 5 million, and a “rich” class of at least 750,000, with money to spend. That’s quite a market.
Restaurants and bars can be quite profitable, mostly because the staff don’t get paid much as a basic wage, they get most of their remuneration from the 10% service charge that is added to bills, and cash tips. The biggest cost for an owner is energy, due to the “epileptic” nature of the mains supply.
The trouble is, there is a lack of good management and staff, and this translates into bad, bad service. Me, I would rather go somewhere which has good, acceptable food and great, friendly service, than somewhere with great food and lousy service.
Here are three recent examples of restaurants in Lagos. The first is a franchise outlet of a South African fish restaurant chain. The waiter says it wasn’t his fault he had brought us the wrong drinks, as he hadn’t taken the order. Instead of changing the wrong drink, he bitched and moaned, at the staff and then at me, I shouldn’t get cross with him, he was only there to help out the stupid local staff, and was going back home to South Africa soon. And we took our business elsewhere (see example 3 below).
The second is a Chinese-owned and operated hotel in Lagos, which has two or more oriental restaurants. After 15 minutes, and repeated asking, and after I had finished my food, I was told that soy sauce was not available. Soy sauce??!!
A restaurant or bar relies on repeat customers, who go back time and time again, who are loyal to the place. You don’t generate loyalty when the service is bad, when you can’t supply the basics.
And my third? A sports bar on Victoria Island, previously owned by the eponymous (?!) Pat, where they keep it simple, the food is good, won’t win many awards, but the staff are really friendly and attentive, and the manager, an industry professional, walks the floor, talking to his customers – his loyal, repeat customers.
Talk to some of the restaurateurs and bar owners, and they will tell you “no money-o!”. Really? Or is it actually “no know anything about the business-o”?!
Trevor Ward
W Hospitality Group, Lagos
trevor.ward@w-hospitalitygroup.com
If I see one more hotel claiming that it is offering “hospitality redefined”, I shall scream. Probably, like the little girl in the rhyme, until I am sick.
It is normally in the “bush-est” of hotels that you see this claim, in hotels which have been built by an owner with a “professional” team who have not a clue what hospitality is all about. Least of all being able to “redefine” it, whatever that means. The architect probably visited a hotel once, may even have stayed in one, and sees what is, to the unpractised eye, a big house with lots of bedrooms. And then proceeds to waste an enormous amount of the owner’s money on a design which just does not work.
Their design principles seem to include the following:
And then they ask me to find them an international operator for this, this …… “redefined” hotel.
Then the hotel opens, and has what is described as “the restaurant”. Typically a most uncomfortable area, with hard floors, metal chair legs, the brightest of lighting (and unpleasant light fixtures), the (staff) TV at full volume, and a tabletop strewn with “amusing” pieces of cheap Chinese plastic masquerading as cruet sets, flowers and toothpick dispensers. Get the menu, pages and pages of “mouth watering” dishes, but there’s nothing available except meat and fish. Or often just meat. That soooooo p*sses me off, you choose something, and it takes ten minutes for the staff to find out they haven’t got it. And then it takes ages to get what you do (can?) order, because the architect didn’t provide a large enough kitchen, there is not enough equipment, and the cook can only do one dish at a time.
I’ll tell you how to “redefine” hospitality in these hotels. It is, first, to build a hotel that follows the basic principles of design that have been developed over many years to ensure that the guests’ needs are met, that he feels comfortable, and both physically and mentally secure. Second, it is to provide a service that has as its core focus the needs of the guest, the guest that is paying for that service, and the guest that you want to come back. Time and time again.
It is curious, methinks, that people who pull out all the stops to provide hospitality when an aged parent comes to visit them at home, these same people change completely when they are in a hotel environment, providing services to guests who pay their wages? A lack of training doesn’t help, of course (I once had an owner tell me that he doesn’t train her staff because if she did, they will be poached by another hotel. Cute, real cute).
After almost 40 years in the industry, I am yet to find any rocket science or brain surgery involved in building hotels and in running them. It really isn’t difficult to get it right. And there really is nothing to “redefine”. Go back to basics. Invest in knowledge, and keep investing in that knowledge for ever. That way your guests will want to come back. Time and time again.
Oh, I nearly forgot, it’s January so a New Year’s resolution is in order, isn’t it? Here’s mine for 2013 – never more assume that a hotel restaurant menu is anything other than a part of the décor! It’s a tough one, I know, people always told me different – “choose something from the menu” – but it might keep down my stress levels.
Trevor Ward
W Hospitality Group, Lagos
trevor.ward@w-hospitalitygroup.com
| The City’s Airport | Recommended Business Hotels | General impressions or tips with regards to travelling on business in the city | |
| Abuja | It’s difficult to know whether this airport is finished or not! The arrangements for domestic arrivals are bizarre (“use the little door round the side there”), and then trek through the international hall to the departure area. Domestic departures have two places to go, depending on which airline you’re on.
I have never travelled international in or to Abuja. |
If you want to see and be seen, the Transcorp Hilton is a must – all the worked passes through there at some time or other. The Sheraton is old but friendly, with some great restaurants. The three small Protea hotels are more cosy than their bigger cousins, and the Hawthorn Suites offers an apartment-style product. | Thee road network is really good, and there always seems to be anew highway under construction in Abuja! The road from the airport to town is undergoing a major rebuild, and delays are possible, particularly on the way in early in the morning, due to a security check.
There are very few restaurants and bars outside of the hotels, and both the Sheraton and the Hilton have nightclubs and casinos.
There are some good quality green taxis plying the streets, and you might even see the odd London cab!
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| Accra | The international airport is working well, although immigration can be a real bottleneck at peak periods.
The duty free shop is good value, but there’s only the one. |
There’s a wide range of hotels to choose from in Accra, from the beachside Labadi Beach and La Palm, to the Holiday Inn at the airport. The newest place in town is the Mövenpick, which will be challenged for market supremacy very soon by the Kempinski. | Traffic congestion in Accra is worse at times than Lagos (sic!). the arrival of Big Oil has seen a boom in activity, and that means more cars, but not more roads. So beware getting caught downtown with only a short time to get to the airport.
Captain Hooks restaurant has good fish. |
| Addis Ababa | Bole airport is a major transit point for the region, and seems to be coping well with the pressure. Connectivity with ET is normally quite good, but sometimes needs an overnight stop. The duty free shops are not bad. | The best hotel in town is the Sheraton, and is the place to see and be seen. The Hilton has seen better days, but has a good bar where the expatriates hang out. Radisson Blu have recently opened, close to the Hilton, but the facilities are quire limited. | |
| Dar es Salaam | Dar airport is pretty crummy, although the duty free shops are good. The whole building needs renovation, and it can also win the prize for “ugliest airport terminal”! | Big selection of hotels to choose from, in the CBD and out on the beaches of the peninsula. Seacliff is the poshest, but also the furthest from the CBD. The Hyatt is the grandest, and has a good Chinese restaurant. The Best Western is cosy, with a great pool and sea view. | The best restaurants are on the peninsula. There is quite a variety up at the Seacliff Hotel.
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| Lagos | Lagos airport is really horrible, and not for the fainthearted. The treatment of arriving international passengers is the worst I have experienced in Africa – and as I live here, I experience it very often! If you can, organise for a protocol officer to escort you through – but you will still have to wait ages for your luggage. Yellow fever vaccination certificates will be demanded only from white-skinned travellers. | There are several hotels to choose from these days, but the best hotels in town are the Proteas (six of them!), the Sheraton, the Southern Sun, the Radisson Blu and the Four Points. Don’t be put off by the high published rates – there is always a deal to be done. | Lagos is not as near as daunting as people think. Sure, you have to be plenty street-wise, but with sensible precautions you can have a good time, and without it costing an arm and a leg. Check out Pat’s Bar in Victoria island, good priced drinks and food, plenty of TVs to watch the game(s), and live entertainment some nights. |
| Luanda | What used to be a horrendous experience is now a modern, well-operated airport, although the check-in is a bit chaotic at peak times (where isn’t it?!). Allow plenty of time, as the lines can move pretty slowly. The arrival experience is fine, immigration is very efficient, and you will be asked for a yellow fever certificate. | The two new hotels in town are the Baia and the Epic Sana, both modern and well managed. The Continental Hotel is unpretentious and very good value for money. Avoid the Presidente like the plague, it is terrible. | Luanda is extremely expensive, but there are signs that the prices are on the way down, as competition increases, and more locally-produced food becomes available. The Ilha is the place to be in the evenings, or go there at lunchtimes for some good meal deals. |
| Nairobi | Nairobi airport is old and creaky, but seems to work OK. It is way overcrowded, and the departure hall always seem to be strewn with stranded passengers from exotic places! The duty free is not bad. | There are a lot of hotels to choose from. In the CBD, the InterContinental and the Regency are the two main ones, and the new Crowne Plaza on Upper Hill is getting good review. | Central Nairobi has a reputation for being dangerous, but I have never had a problem there – but be streetwise all the same. The traffic in town is appalling, so leave plenty of time to get to the airport when leaving.
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| Windhoek | The international airport in Windhoek is small and really quite charming! The little departure lounge is right next to the apron, so you know what’s going on. | The two main hotels in the centre of town are the Hilton and the Kalahari Sands. The Hilton is clean and modern, but needs to shape up on its service standards. The Kalahari Sands is located in the middle of a shopping mall, and is a little shabby. | Not the most dynamic of cities, Windhoek can be a bit claustrophobic after a few days. It is fund to walk around during the say, but don’t expect anything to be open after 5pm, or on a Sunday – the German influence! Joe’s Beer House is worth a visit, if only for the atmosphere – although the beer and food get good reviews. |
Trevor Ward
W Hospitality Group, Lagos
trevor.ward@w-hospitalitygroup.com
Rather curious, methinks, that the country with the largest hotel industry in Africa, and with the largest number of home-grown brands, hasn’t got a larger presence of those brands elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.
I’m talking, of course, about South Africa. Travellers who live there, or who visit, will be familiar with a long list of local hotel chains, such as Protea, City Lodge, Tsogo Sun, Peermont, Sun International and Three Cities. These and others are long-established names “down south”, and most have a significant presence in the industry there – at latest count, Protea have over 80 hotels in South Africa (including those in their African Pride collection), and Tsogo Sun almost 60.
Now, these chains have made pioneering inroads into southern Africa. Tsogo Sun have a presence in Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia, Sun International are in Lesotho, Zambia, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia – and so on. But “the experts” say that the countries to watch in sub-Saharan Africa, in terms of economic growth, both in percentage terms and absolute dollars, are Angola, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. Most readers will have a view on whether “those experts” are right, and some will want to add their own “one to watch”. With the exception of Protea, the presence of the South African chains in those countries is very light.
The South African chains are not keeping up with the international chains, both those long established like Hilton and Le Meridien, and Johnny-come-lately’s such as Kempinski and Carlson Rezidor, when it comes to their expansion. In our pipeline survey conducted at the beginning of 2012, not one of the South African chains made it into the top 10 in terms of new rooms in the development pipeline. Protea were almost there, but because their hotels tend to be small in size, they were elbowed out by the likes of Kempinski and Rotana.
Before one of the Protea guys gets up and shouts at me, they are the one chain that has a substantial presence outside of South Africa, with 11 hotels in Nigeria alone, the most of any international or regional hotel chain, and with several in the development pipeline. Looking at Nigeria, the largest market outside South Africa, Southern Sun and Sun International have just one hotel apiece, City Lodge is nowhere to be seen (but good to see that they have finally “travelled”, with hotels in Kenya and Botswana).
Graham Wood of Tsogo Sun explained recently at the African Hotel Investment Forum in Nairobi that the reason for this “light footprint” was generally because there had been an almost single-minded historic focus on their domestic market – and look where that got them, with the serious supply overhang from 2010 – and specifically for Tsogo Sun because they have historically had an “asset-heavy” model – i.e. a policy of owning the hotels that they manage. And that capital requirement has restricted their expansion.
That’s fine, but the fact is that the likes of Hilton, Carlson Rezidor and Starwood are claiming sub-Saharan Africa as their own, and are enjoying first mover advantage in many markets. The Radisson Blu hotel in downtown Lagos is the best performer in that market. Starwood have 5 hotels in Nigeria with, between them, more rooms than Tsogo Sun has in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa, including one in Nigeria. The non-South African pipeline of all the South African hotel chains is equivalent to that of one company, Marriott, which is a relative newcomer to Africa. And there is not a single South African-branded hotel in Francophone Africa.
Curious, huh?
Trevor Ward
W Hospitality Group, Lagos
trevor.ward@w-hospitalitygroup.com
Ever complained about Lagos hotel prices? A lot of people do! A standard room is going to cost you upwards of US$500 per night at the city’s leading hotels. Let’s be honest, none of these hotels can be said to be deluxe, and problems encountered by guests are frequent, ranging from power outages to water shortages and communication problems.
So why the “high” prices?
I’m currently working on a client’s proposed new hotel project in Lagos. It’s a basic “box”, a simple design, 120 rooms, restaurant, bar, a few meeting rooms, a gym, and that’s about it – a classic, upper midmarket product.
This hotel is going to cost DOUBLE what it would cost to build in South Africa. Because of: import duties, transport costs, contractor margins, inefficiencies, the weather, unnecessary stoppages on site due to bureaucratic interference, etc etc. And because a hotel in Lagos, and anywhere else in Nigeria, needs to be entirely self-sufficient in power (three generators, with extremely expensive control panels) water (at least two boreholes, with water treatment plants) and waste (a dedicated sewage plant).
And generators are horrible things – they sit there drinking diesel, eating batteries, and funding the lavish life style of the various engineers who “mend” and “service” them. They blow your light bulbs, destroy your DVD players, and generally wreak havoc. Oh yes, and they are an essential piece of equipment to run a hotel. A hotelier friend recently complained that his energy costs were 18 per cent of revenue. Ouch. A London hotelier is screaming when it goes above 4 per cent.
So you see the problem? Very high build costs, and an environment which contributes to high operating costs as well. Those are two of the things which drive high hotel prices. The third is supply and demand. If you are still prepared to pay those prices – and what choice do you have? – to do business in the most dynamic economy in Africa, and one of the top three or four in the world, no hotelier is going to say no to your money.
Next time you hand over US$500 for a “standard” room, it may not be any more palatable, but perhaps you can spare a thought for the poor old hotelier, filling up his generator’s diesel tank and calling the engineer for yet another replacement part.
Trevor Ward
W Hospitality Group, Lagos
trevor.ward@w-hospitalitygroup.com
I commented last month about the high prices in Lagos hotels, and the reasons for that – high development costs, high operating costs, and so on. Maybe you took pity on the poor hotel owners and managers? Well, despite all those issues, hotels in Africa can be highly profitable at the operational level, partly because other costs such as payroll are, in many cities, low compared to the rates charge, and because of high occupancies.
If that is the case, why aren’t more people building more hotels to take advantage of this “golden goose”?
Well, you see, because hotels are expensive pieces of kit, with high up front capital costs, they take some years to repay the investors their money. The hotel industry is competing for that money with other sectors, such as commercial real estate and housing, which may not be so attractive in the long-term, but return capital much quicker, either through sales or rentals. And African investors, generally (never, ever generalise about Africa, but here goes!) are looking for shorter-term returns than the typical 7 to 10 years of a hotel – in trading, government contracts, oil and gas trading, etc.
Compound that with the high interest rates and short repayment terms quoted by local banks, the difficulties associated with a lack of professional expertise and experience in the development teams, the climate, bureaucracy and corruption, and it’s really tough to get new projects off the ground.
But they are happening – a survey we carried out at the beginning of 2012 shows that the regional and international hotel chains have signed contracts to manage over 38,000 new rooms in 208 hotels in Africa, up from 31,600 rooms in 159 hotels the year before. Of these new rooms, 55 per cent are under construction, meaning that in the next three to four years we can expect in excess of 20,000 new rooms to open.
So far, so good, but do the arithmetic – that pipeline is in 35 countries (which means that there are 19 countries on the continent with nothing happening!), a measly 571 per country! It’s just not enough!
Trevor Ward
W Hospitality Group, Lagos
trevor.ward@w-hospitalitygroup.com
Travelling around Nigeria has never been a simple task, but since the tragic crash of a Dana Air flight back in June, it has got more complicated and more expensive.
Two major airlines, Dana and Air Nigeria, are no longer operating on domestic routes – the reason for the former is obvious, but the latter is more murky, with all sorts of tales bandied about. The bottom line is they ain’t flying! That leaves two main carriers, Arik and AeroContractors, trying to fill the gap, and struggling to do so. Delays are so normal that, when I check in, for a flight, I don’t ask “is it on time”, instead “how long is the delay?”. You might leave on time first flight of the day, but never is the last flight on schedule – ever been delayed 6 hours for a 45 minute flight? I have. Ever ben told that the delay would be short? I have – same flight!
One problem is that the airlines don’t have enough aircraft, and whilst we welcome the opening of new airports such as Uyo (Akwa Ibom State) and Asaba (Delta State), the airlines are overstretched in their attempts to cover all the route permutations.
Airlines in Nigeria come and go – there’s a whole list of “has-beens” such as ADC, Sosoliso, Okada and Oriental. Dana was a relatively new entrant to the market, and recently we have seen First Nation come – and go, they ceased flying at the same time as the Dana tragedy. IRS and Chanchangi operate on a few of the main routes, but of all the carriers I tend to favour AeroContractors, despite the move to “buy your coffee” on board. And their fares are more reasonable, especially if you book ahead. But most important – their 100% safety record.
For us weary travellers, there’s very little to be done about the lack of flights and rubbish service. Transport long distance by roads is fraught with problems, including some of the most appalling “highways” you can imagine, leading to accidents a-plenty. The quality of driving doesn’t help, either.
It’s a big country, Nigeria, and we need better transportation. Some of the roads are being rebuilt, but experience says that unless they’re using one of the big civil contractors to do the work, they won’t last for long. The economy needs better transportation – what’s the point of growing tomatoes if you can’t get them to market? For now we have to grin and bear it, and pray for government to do something about it – or allow the private sector to do so. Full marks to the Lekki Concession Company for what they have done in Lagos, constructing a proper road, to ease the congestion in Victoria Island
Trevor Ward
W Hospitality Group, Lagos
trevor.ward@w-hospitalitygroup.com
