Fashola Commissions N30 Billion Tallest Hotel In West Africa

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Lagos, News Sunday, September 29th, 2013

Intercontinental Hotel

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has commissioned the tallest hotel in West Africa, Intercontinental Lagos erected at a cost of N30 billion.

The hotel, located at Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeris is a 23-storey building housing 358 rooms and 37 suites and a Presidential suite.

The Intercontinental Lagos, a subsidiary of the Intercontinental Hotel Group, IHG, is owned by the Milan Group.

Speaking while commissioning the edifice on Sunday, Fashola stated that the hotel would surely boost the hospitality and tourism industry in the state and urged other entrepreneurs to look inward and invest their money in hotels and public utilities such as roads.

He said that the hotel represented the increasing brands of hotels making Nigeria their choice destinations, saying that the tourism industry would be boosted by the new edifice.

Fashola described tourism business as a one that could lead to massive creation of jobs for the masses.

The governor appealed to hotels to assist the government in the collection of consumption tax, stressing that the tax was not levied on hotels but consumers of the products, saying that it was by helping the government to collect the tax that government could provide social amenities for the populace.

The Chairman of Milan Group, Ramesh Valechha was optimistic that the hotel would change the landscape of Lagos and boost the hospitality industry in the state.

While disclosing that the edifice cost over N30 billion to build and create 650 jobs for Nigerians, Valechha commended the Lagos State Government, Skye Bank and Wema Bank for being part of the project.

Also, the Regional General Manager, IHG, Africa, Karl Hala added that the hotel is the leading hotel in Nigeria, saying the group had 170 Intercontinental Hotels in 60 countries of the world.

According to him, the hotel is the only 5-star hotel in Nigeria as at now, saying it would help to shape the hospitality industry in Lagos and Nigeria as a whole.