TheCable

In the past three or four decades, the travel trade business has gone through series of up and down associated largely to the absence of stiff regulation to hedge and control entry and exist regimes into the sector. The business adjudged as a multi-billion naira profitable run for both foreign and local airlines operators and the key downstream drivers popularly known as travel agents, remains the only business in Nigeria where “an investor” do not need an office and a workforce to operate.

In the “good old days” all one needs to fleece the travelling public is just to walk into any airline office, negotiate your way through the open table commission level, split same with the customer and pronto, a ticket wrongly coded falls into your hands. The “kalokalo” marketing of air tickets thrived and the cabal of fraudsters emerged allegedly supported and fronted by insiders in airline offices and global distribution systems operators.

The rob offs grew in huge scale over time as these fraudsters cleverly closed shop whenever the heat becomes unbearable and the public baying for their blood, including that of the innocent and dedicated professionals.

In this game, the fraudsters knew that the police will only arraign them on bailable “419” advance fee charges and trust the courts, the case either drags and frustrates prosecutors and the matter celebrated as “dead on arrival”.

On this count, not only passengers are defrauded. The foreign airlines are also victims as even most travel trade operators deliberately default and goes into ‘self exile’ not minding the very ‘lame’ penalty from International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global regulatory body of travel trade business worldwide. The shameful deal also exposed Nigeria to global ridicule as most airline operators in Nigeria either exists the country, with millions of downstream jobs lost in the process and where they (the airlines) chose to remain, took laws into their hands, railing out obnoxious trade engagements before their inventories are issued to travel agents.

Sadly, no cares that the image of Nigeria dips or get red flagged as every Dick, Tom and Harry finds their way into this very lucrative yet hugely abused business. Sad also is the reality that offenders easily get free and the security agencies at the mercy of these unrelenting blood suckers. So how does the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) the umbrella body of travel-trade operators fared in this quest to check the cancer of these rampaging thieves masquerading as travel agents?

Bankole Bernard, Nanta President who has declared a total and unrelenting war against these fraudsters, last week in Lagos brandished a “red and green” card, this time not only to expose the cabal and their behind the scene influencers and encouragers but to harmonize and identify the real operators.

At last check, only six thousand companies registered as travel-trade operators on the data base of Nanta in an industry with an estimated twenty million operators doing business without check by regulators and security agencies.

Though Bankole’s agenda finds close support and encouragement from Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), government regulatory body for travel-trade and aviation business in Nigeria, the cheering news of stiff monitoring and enforcement of the membership of travel agents under the umbrella of Nanta, will depopulate the kingdom of unregistered operators and fraudsters in same breath.

The “professionals” card powered by Nanta and enforceable by NCAA also has the buy-in by all the foreign airline operators and Global Distribution System (GDS) vendors, making it a must-have travel agents identification facility of all time, not only in Nigeria but in Africa.

Mr. Edem Oyo-Ita, NCAA director of Air Transport who stood in for the boss of the regulatory agency said the days of fraudsters has come to an end with the travel-trade identification project. His assurance that NCAA is hundred per cent behind the project to burst the fraudsters in the business encouraged overwhelming support from all stakeholders at the Nanta parley who were also at a point in time at the receiving ends of fly-by-night operators and their collaborators rooted across the large divide of the sector.

In weeks to come, Bankole who has not relented in the quest to reposition Nanta and bring about sanity in the travel and tourism sector in Nigeria, has insisted to get this project accepted by all through effective engagement with stakeholders including the security agencies.

Though no human project is ever perfect, the built-in-checks in the project and assurances of support and enforcement from NCAA and its security arm will go a long way to curb the rise and rise of fraudsters living off on the goodwill of Nanta empowered travel agents in Nigeria.