Professor Babalola calls for hybrid governance framework in Nigeria’s hospitality sector

Legislation alone cannot guarantee professional stability in Nigeria’s tourism and hospitality sector. Instead, the industry must adopt a Hybrid Professional Governance Framework that blends statutory regulation with professional self-governance.

This was the argument made by Professor Wasiu Babalola, a Professor of Hotel Management and Tourism at Atiba University Oyo and a PhD Law Candidate at Lead City University, Ibadan, during his keynote address at the National Institute of Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) Stakeholder Engagement Forum on Wednesday, 15th July 2026.

Delivering a paper titled “Strategic Roles of Industry Associations and Professional Bodies in Workforce Registration, Certification, Licensing and Sustainable Human Capital Development,” Professor Babalola drew from his ongoing doctoral research to address critical structural flaws plaguing the industry.

He noted that while the NIHOTOUR Act 2022 was a landmark milestone, Nigeria’s tourism and hospitality ecosystem still suffers from deep structural issues, including fragmented regulation, overlapping institutional responsibilities, inconsistent certification standards, a weak professional identity, and inadequate workforce data.

To resolve these challenges, Professor Babalola urged stakeholders to move away from institutional rivalry and embrace a collaborative governance model.

Drawing comparative lessons from established fields like law, medicine, engineering, and accounting, he demonstrated that mature professions thrive only when government regulators set minimum standards while independent professional bodies manage day-to-day competence, ethics, and peer recognition.

A major highlight of Professor Babalola’s presentation was his proposed Professional Recognition by Professional Practice (PRPP) framework. Under this hybrid structure, responsibilities would be cleanly split, allowing NIHOTOUR to retain ultimate responsibility for statutory regulation, licensing, setting national standards, and maintaining the national workforce register.

Meanwhile, credible industry professional bodies would receive formal recognition under Section 4 of the NIHOTOUR Act to manage continuing professional development, enforce ethical oversight, and handle specialized competency training.

He emphasized that Section 4 of the current Act already provides the necessary legal baseline for this partnership, meaning no new legislation is required to execute it.

He further called for the development of Standard Operating Procedures and Manuals of Operations for recognized bodies, enhancing a National Digital Tourism and Hospitality Workforce Register, and establishing competency-based certification under NIHOTOUR.

In his remarks, the Director-General of NIHOTOUR, Aare Abisoye Fagade, welcomed the insights, reinforcing in his opening remarks that building a globally competitive workforce requires deep collaboration between regulators, academia, and the private sector.

Stakeholders at the forum widely endorsed Professor Babalola’s proposal as a practical way to eliminate duplicate functions and urged NIHOTOUR to sustain engagements to refine the framework into an industry-wide standard.

Professor Babalola concluded that professionalisation is strongest when statutory authority and professional recognition work together in partnership rather than competition.

He also acknowledged the academic support of the Faculty of Law at Lead City University, Ibadan, noting that presenting doctoral research to a national stakeholder audience reflects the University’s commitment to research excellence and bridging the gap between academic theory and practical industry application.