President of NANTA Mr. Bernard Bankole; Chairman Board of Trustees of NANTA Steve Isokariri; General Manager Ethiopian Airlines Nigeria Mrs. Firihewot Mekonnen
As part of the commitment of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) to curb the cases of fraud experienced by travellers in the aviation industry, the Nigeria Travel Practitioners Identification Card (NTPIC) has been launched.
Speaking at the official launch on Tuesday in Lagos, the President of NANTA, Bankole Bernard, said the card would sanctise the downstream sector of the aviation industry which has been seen to be porous because the entry and exit barriers are entirely weak.
He also noted that they have seen occasions where due to the weakness travellers are being exploited by the fraudulent miscreants who take advantage of proper organisation of an industry.
The NANTA President explained that the identity card would give stakeholders and travellers the ability to identify who are members are and who are the real practitioners, noting that in that way committed stakeholders would begin to identify them and deal with them accordingly, “once they found out that they are fraudulent, then they would de-list them from the association.”
He noted that what informed the issue of producing the identity card was due to the series of complains that they have received from travellers who have been defrauded, adding that during summer periods, the figures of people being defrauded are always very high.
“People get to the airport and they realise that what they have with them is reservation papers and they would lost their monies, therefore we felt this must not continue and we must a stop to it. So today marks the beginning of putting a stop to such things,” he noted.
Bernard further stated that they have they are collaborating with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), federal Ministry of Aviation, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigeria Immigration Service (NSI) as part of their desire to show the importance of the identity card.
According to him, “The five percent surcharge goes to the key ticket and to the NCAA and there is nothing anybody can do about it. It has been like that from time. It does not have anything effect on us because we are not the ones paying rather, we pay through the parcel agents so we are not worried about that.
“From today, the card goes into public domain, we will have to create more awareness and create a deadline. The deadline has not been fixed yet because we need a lot more and we cannot just do that without getting everybody involved. We are bringing about 60,000 people into the net.
“The penalty for non-compliance will be determined by NCAA which they are going to send out after the launch. They would send it to the airlines and the public. We are going to embark on full scale publicity of the card through various media platform such as television, radio, social media channels, and others.
“We are of the strong belief that NTPIC will help in identifying all practitioners in the travel industry and put a check on them by ensuring that there is a proper database of all the agents in the industry as well as keeping statistical data to help the government plan for the industry. We will closely with the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), the body responsible to grow tourism to make Nigeria a key destination to visit in Africa.”
Meanwhile, Heritage Bank Plc, Nigeria’s most innovative banking services provider, has partnered with NANTA to launch the Nigeria Travel Practitioners Identification Card.
Head of corporate communications of Heritage Bank, Mr. Fela Ibidapo said the bank partnered with the travel agencies in a bid to help to sensitize and sanitise the industry.
He said in an industry with unconfirmed member list of about 60,000, they felt they could help to create a platform that would enable them to provide better services to their clients in a bid to separate the genuine agents from the fraudulent ones.
THISDAY
