{"id":95644,"date":"2015-03-02T13:24:16","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T13:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=95644"},"modified":"2015-03-02T13:24:16","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T13:24:16","slug":"energy-crisis-collapsing-hotels-in-northern-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/energy-crisis-collapsing-hotels-in-northern-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy crisis collapsing hotels in Northern Region"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some hotels and guest houses in the Northern Region are collapsing due to the nation\u2019s unresolved energy crisis<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Records showed that the region can boast of 120 registered hotels and guest houses.<\/p>\n

But some Managers who are struggling for survival in the industry have already laid off their staff.<\/p>\n

This came to light at the 8th Biennial Conference of the Ghana Hotels Association held in Tamale.<\/p>\n

Chief Executive Officer of Saam Hotel in Tamale, Dr. Von L.L Asigri exclusively shared his frustration with Citi News<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe energy crisis is very much and even if you have a generator, the cost of fuelling it is so exorbitant that you probably will not break even and this power crisis is also affecting our water supply: to buy water from the normal tankers, it increases our cost so enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"hotel<\/a><\/p>\n

He served notice of closing down until the situation improved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, it probably might be a good idea to close down until things improve because there is no way you can run and break even with the present situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Managing Director of Gariba Lodge at Kanvili on the Tamale-Bolga road, Issah Abdul Karim described the energy crisis as quite terrible.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite terrible and to be frank even if there is constant power supply the cost is exceptionally high: if you get light off what we term as Dumsor cost of fuel to run the generator is equally high.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"hotel<\/a><\/p>\n

He said management will have no option than to lay off staff if the problem is not solved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it continues and there is no income we can\u2019t pay salaries and will have to lay off some of our staff: I can say for sure I spend not less than GHC 2,000.00 on power every three days and in a month we talk about GHC 46,000.00 to GHC 56,000.00 which is unbearable.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Northern Regional Chairman of the Ghana Hotels Association, Samson T. Zakari, hotel Managers in the region were running at a loss, hence the decision to downsize the employees.<\/p>\n

He attributed the situation to the nation\u2019s huge energy crisis coupled with high rates of utility bills.
\nHe called on government to fix the energy crisis to save the hotel industry as means of boosting eco-tourism in the region.<\/p>\n

\"hotel<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cInitially we didn\u2019t have this power supply problem in the northern region but recently and in fact the past one month they have included us on the schedule and virtually almost every two days there is power outage, in the night or day time and is something we have never expected: the northern region actually has not been very good in generating revenue in the hotel industry and with this erratic power supply taking away everything again making expenditure very high, is impacting very seriously on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can assure you that most hotels don\u2019t even want to operate when there is scheduled light off, if you come to them they tell you they are out of service and you can imagine if the staff are to be maintained, how are they going to pay them? So most people want to reduce their staff because if they don\u2019t reduce the staff there is no way they are able to pay their salary at the end of the month so that is why some hotel managers are taking this measure,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Samson Zakari impressed upon government to remove import duty on the importation of generators.<\/p>\n

\u201cHotels are the gateway because any stranger or any visitor into the country stays in hotel, he doesn\u2019t go to people\u2019s houses and if you come into the hotel and there is no power you can imagine what image he will carry out of the country: so we are appealing to government to at least remove the import duty on generators.\u201d<\/p>\n

National President of the Ghana Hotels Association, Herbert Acquaye implored government to intensify its Private-Public-Partnership drive by establishing a Tourism Development Fund to provide opportunities for the growth of the tourism industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment should be able to establish a tourism training revolving fund which can be used to equip and control some hospitality training institutions as it may consider necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fund must bolster revenue through the use of technology e.g. mobile payments, e-statements and mobile balance enquiry,\u201d Mr. Acquaye stressed.
\nHerbert Acquaye noted with deep concern that the nation\u2019s energy crisis and its accompanying high rates of utility charges will collapse the hotel industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cLack of energy and its high cost is forcing many operators out of business: hotels may be forced to cut back on their operations and start staff layoffs if the situation does not improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also bemoaned the sharp decline in the local currency against foreign currencies and implied that it had adversely affected the hotel industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cBank interest rates have climbed to as high as 34 per annum: inflation is hovering at around 16 percent, the Ghana cedi continues to fall against the foreign currencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

He lamented, \u201cThis situation makes the cost of our inputs very high leading to high operational cost: to survive such turbulence we are forced to increase our rates and prices turning Ghana into a high cost destination: domestic tourism is totally edged out and international tourism becomes selective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Acquaye said the Ebola scare contributed to a general drop of occupancy in the country by 20 percent in 2014 against that of 2013.<\/p>\n

He nonetheless commended Ghana Commercial Bank, Audiovisual Rights Society of Ghana, Akwaaba Soap, Seador Ventures, Accra Brewery, Ghana Breweries, Modern City Hotels and the leadership of the Northern Regional Branch of the Ghana Hotels Association for the successful organization of the conference in Tamale.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some hotels and guest houses in the Northern Region are collapsing due to the nation\u2019s unresolved energy crisis. Records showed that the region can boast of 120 registered hotels and guest houses. But some Managers who are struggling for survival in the industry have already laid off their staff. This came to light at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":95649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[38,17],"yoast_head":"\nEnergy crisis collapsing hotels in Northern Region - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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