I am still looking forward to a honeymoon when I retire

- Dr Wasiu Babalola (Entrepreneur & MD for Africa at Swiss International, Switzerland)

For Dr Wasiu Babalola, the honeymoon may have been delayed but definitely, it will not be denied! That is the wish of this gentleman, who has turned out to be a whiz kid in the hospitality and tourism sector of the Nigeria economy. Immediately after an elaborate marriage ceremony to his beloved bride, he was whisked away to another part of the town, to continue with work! That of course, was the reward for being a whiz-kid! He was urgently needed to be on duty!

But Dr Wasiu Babalola, says, "no, one day, I will get my honeymoon back! In a couple of years time, I hope to be able to put in place my
retirement plan. I have been working actively for like 19 years, even in my sleep I dream about the business. So I need to retire young and enjoy myself. You can't believe it, when I got married, I didn't take my wife on honeymoon. The day I got married, I still had to go back to work. So I need time sooner in future to be with my wife. She knows that I still have that as carry-over! So we are still going to go on a honeymoon. I also need to retire young so that I can play around and learn new things. Right now, I am learning how to play lawn tennis, I want to learn hockey and I want to play golf.  I can't do all that now when i'm still making money."

Dr Wasiu Babalola a Young entrepreneur and Managing Director for Africa at Swiss International Hotels & Resorts, Switzerland, a global organisation with investment in the hospitality industry, tells us in this interview with Paul Ukpabio, more about the hospitality industry in Nigeria, proffers ways that the industry can be rescued, and also chips in, notable advise to newcomers on how to survive in the industry.                                                                                                                                                                                      

Tell us a little bit about your background

I am from Oyo State married to a Lagosian. I have had all my education in Lagos, including Lagos State Polytechnic where I studied hotel and catering management and then to Ekpoma, Ambrose Alli University for my Masters briefly, Sherwood University in California, for my P hd in Hospitality Management. I have been in the industry since the 90s. I started back then in the service line with UAC Foods, then I was with Mr Biggs, I also worked as a Duty Manager while I was at the Polytechnic. I moved into the consultancy business during which time I got chartered as a Marketer by the Institute of Marketing Nigeria and here I am working for Swiss International after about 17 years working in other ventures, multi unit consultancy business. I also lecture at Kwara State University, School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management, and I am an external moderator for Lagos State Polytechnic as well. On the side, I am the Secretary, Institute of Hospitality, UK, Nigeria International branch. I am a Fellow of the Nigeria Hotel and Catering Institute, Fellow of Institute of Management Consultants, and I am a Member of some more institutes like that.

You are here and you are there, where do you find the time to do all that?

(Laughs) First I think it has to be God. Secondly, when you have passion for something, and you enjoy it, you will just find yourself doing the thing even if there is no one there to supervise you or to say thank you, the enjoyment you get, is usually enough. I found myself in the profession by mistake, and decided to make the best of what I could get from it.

You said you got into it by mistake, what do you mean by that?

I said so because I actually wanted to be a chartered accountant. But there where issues with the release of WAEC result, and later I realised that I had a short fall in the requirement to study accounting. I didn't want to stay at home. So I was asked to choose any course that my result was good enough for. So I chose catering and along the line, I found out that it is fun.

So at what point did you decide to start your business?

I think I never made up my mind starting my business until back in early 2000 when I was discussing with one of my senior colleagues. And he asked a funny question, he said 'Babs, which should be your priority, is it your first option or your second option? Is it the job that you are doing now that is option A or is it is the job that you are doing behind, because he knew I had books in the market, I was lecturing part time in the polytechnic and so on. I replied him that it is the job that I am doing that is option A, my first priority. So he said I should not worry, that I should return to him in another six months and give him an answer. I continued to enjoy my life, but something came up, and my salary was delayed, we were suspended for three months. During that period, we were not paid our salary. But I realised later that within that period that I was not paid, I was able to take my family on vacation. I had a bank facility that I was servicing, and I found out that I was also even able to service the facility too within that three months. And I was still buoyant. That was when I realised that what was taking care of me during that period that I lost my option A, was actually what ought to be my option A. That was when i sat down to re-strategise. I kept going on until it got to a point that I had to quit the regular job, to concentrate fully on my business. So here I am.

At what point did marriage come in?

I got married about eleven years ago to my wonderful partner who is from Lagos state and she has been with me. It became a good decision because I later realised that it was the marriage that helped me to finish my P hd. If not for the marriage, I wouldn't have been able to finish my P hd. I was actually reluctant to complete it, until she came on and insisted that I have to finish it. And she was there to help. And the marriage has been blessed with three lovely children.

Looking at your face and still seeing youth written all over it, don't people stop you a-times to ask how did you make it up the ladder of success so fast?

I keep telling people that being young is my unique selling point. Probably my face is a bit deceptive too, probably because I have a good stature, in most cases, people tend to take off even almost 7 or 12 years away from my age (laughs). That is good. It means that I am keeping fit. But then I am creatively young when it comes to this industry, I am still learning, but I am still young too,  I have a good rapport with all my senior colleagues so that gives me an advantage to think the way they think. I may be young but my thinking is probably ten or twelve years ahead of me because of the kind of people that I have surrounded myself with. Even when I was a student, I had good rapport with those in the industry. So before I got into the industry, I already had an idea of what it is like. People one surround oneself with, also determines how far one can go.

Looking at the hospitality industry, with the dwindling earnings from oil, do you see the industry taking over?
I hope it has happened but if it doesn't happen now, it certainly will happen at some point. I think we are just unfortunate to find ourselves in an environment where people pay lip service to tourism. The government of yesteryears hold to tourism as the definition in the dictionary not necessary in the practice. Government after government keep telling us stories that is they talk it but do not act it. So until when we have a government that actually understands what it is, who actually act it, probably we will have a change. They travel abroad, they see it there, but they do not act it here. We have the materials, the resources, all they just need to do is to put the right person there. I think it is something that has been there before I was born, we keep talking about it, we hope one day, they will get it right.

Do you really see the hospitality and tourism industry making an impact in the Nigerian economy? 

Of course it does. The simple example I give people is that, to have a micro finance bank registered in the state is N2b. To have it in a local government is N2m registration with the CBN. When you have N2m and you want to set up a micro-finance bank, probably you need another N3m for setting up of offices and so on, N5m sets up one micro-finance unit, how many staff do you think that they will employ including driver and so on? Maximum six. The same N5m you use to set up a fast food outlet, you will employ not less than 20 people directly. Then another probably 20 people you employ indirectly, the person that brings the flower, the transport persons that get paid and different people in the chain. So it is not until we bring out paper and start discussing the economics of all these, before we can see that the person in tourism gives more multiplier effect on the economy than the micro-finance person. So it is just about where we place our your priorities. We are in a situation where even the banks are not encouraging businesses, no mechanism for long term investment and until we create such a mechanism, which recognises long term investment planning, before we can be sure of benefits. We do not even look at our destinations any longer, so many issues. But first things first, we need to have a legal framework and then the political will to uphold the legal framework, and everything will fall into place.

Do we have the manpower in place, that is, people to power the industry, because we see hotels with staff picked from the street?

Yes, that is true, but who caused it, it is the system. You can't go to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and register a clinic without being asked for your medical licence. You cannot got to CBN that you want to register a bank without them giving you a licence to take to CAC that you have been approved to do so, even a stockbroking firm goes through a process. But any Jack can go to the CAC, that he wants to register a hotel and probably in a weeks' time, it is done!  What is the background of that person? How many hotels are even owned by professionals, they are owned by the bankers, by top lawyers, who see it as investment, not necessary an industry to be maintained. They come in to milk and go away. The system itself encourages this. The system does not ask questions like who is your technical partner? We are not saying that anybody that wants to own hotel must be a professional. No, he could be an investor yes, but the law should ask, who is your technical partner, someone who will ensure that things are done right. And when that is done, it also helps the educational aspect because the technical partner, will source for the right, educated staff. The issue there is that, we have people being graduated into the industry but there is gap between supply and demand. The demand far out weighs the supply. In my set we were about 20 that graduated into the industry, and out of that 20, we were 6 male and 14 female. Now out of that number, 50% of the female became housewives. Among the others, some went into other things. So you can see that there is a huge gap on the labour supply and labour demand. So what does the investor do at the moment, he has to look for people to improvise. There are two issues here, there are people who are trained as managers for hotel and others trained as managers for business. Some are trained to be chefs, some trained to be house keepers. I can tell you that people studying in the industry are trained but where we have issues is when the industry needs staff, they are not there, so the industry goes to take people who studied accounting, or business, who have not been trained with the attitude of service, people who have been trained to sit down and get receipt to post. And when you now ask that kind of person to come and give service, then it becomes an issue. That has been the issue. So we do have people in the industry but not enough. The industry itself has not made the course attractive for people to want or to study it.

You are in the hospitality industry, would you say that tourism is really taking place in this country, from the people perspective?

We have found ourselves where we are because of the kind of policy that we have in the country. If it becomes a crime that if you do not go for holiday then you go to jail, then you will see that people will go for holiday. But again, when your means is not enough to meet your needs then you have to improvise. And since the government cannot meet all our needs, they close their eyes. So people do overtime. Even if you give them money to go on holiday, they still pocket the money, to use to meet their other more pressing needs. In Singapore for instance, when the government found out that people were saving more than hey were spending, they declared friday a compulsory holiday. The citizens worked 4 days in a week instead of 5 days as to encourage people to go on holiday in order to spend more. So you see, sometimes the government needs to do more to encourage people to go on holiday. In Nigeria, the system encourages only few to go on holiday. Even when you want to go on holiday, where do you go to? The way I see it, it is our population that is sustaining us, which gives us a robust demand to sustain our economy. That is also what the government is enjoying. But that is not enough. Government should do more. You don't even have to make a law, you can give them incentives. We know how much it is to go to Ghana and come back. A trip that used to cost about $100, which now costs about $300. That makes it now un-lucrative for anyone to go. But have we done anything to make local tourism attractive to take over? No, if we do that now, by the time it suddenly becomes affordable again to go to Ghana, people will not be interested to go there anymore, because they would have discovered and seen abundant opportunity for tourism in Nigeria. I am sure that someday, someone will listen and then do the needful.

If you were not in this industry what else would you have loved to do?

Well if I wasn't in this industry, I would have loved to be an accountant or a lecturer.

Even then you are a lecturer, so how do you cope with the female students in and outside the campus?
The ladies have always been there from childhood, my mother was a wonderful woman, my wife a beautiful, wonderful lady, who is very much with me, even my success in the job came from a lady who challenged me into classwork. So it depends on how we look at the ladies, to some it could be a distraction, to me, its part of the business, it is part of livelihood. I see them, we interact, it doesn't change anything. There is a difference when it comes to the job, a difference when it comes to learning and so on. There is a different attitude for each, eve with the wife and the children too. Women are wonderful people. I am in a profession where the men claim to be on top, but the major players are the women. You have no choice but to find a way for yourself.

Do you find time to take a holiday?

Dr. Wasiu Babalola with wife

I do a lot of shut down occasionally and in most cases, I fix my holiday around my business trip. Working in Nigeria is tough for me. So the only time I enjoy my vacation is when I have an assignment outside Nigeria. At that point I know that nothing can hold me back. For instance I'm going for a training, I add some extra days to make up for a holiday. At the moment the business needs me to give it all it takes. But in a couple of years, I may start my retirement soon. I have been working actively for like 19 years, even in my sleep I dream about the business. So I need to retire young and enjoy myself. You cant believe it, when I got married, I didn't take my wife on honeymoon. The day I got married I still had to go back to work. So I need time sooner in future to be with my wife. She knows that I still have that as carry-over! So we are still going to go on a honeymoon. I also need to retire young so that I can play around and learn new things. Right now I am learning how to play long tennis, I want to learn hockey and I want to play golf.  I can't do it when I'm still making money.

Okay, there is another aspect of you, that is the humanitarian aspect, your role in Lions Club International, where you recently became the President of Rotary Club Isolo in Lagos. What's your involvement in Rotary Club about?

I was introduced into Lions Club International by a female colleague, an Inner Wheel member, a Past District Chair. I had other opportunities of joining earlier, but didn't take it seriously until she urged me on. She told me that I am  a Rotary Club material. I asked her if there is anything in there for me. She replied that there is nothing in there for me but when I am there, I will burn out my stress. She told me that I am a busy man that Rotary Club will give me a few hours to think outside work. For the first 2 years, I did that, my staff knew that they do not call me at such times. And that kept me going and it became, a culture and now a passion. Overtime I knew more about it. I never knew that I will become a president in so short a time, but God has His own way of doing things, rewarding people who are passionate about what they do.

What project do you think will be a major aspect of your presidency?

The year is still young, so we will be doing a lot of free things, eye screening for people in Isolo, giving them glasses, we will be having a de-worming exercise for the children in Isolo, we will be putting our wheel test in line with our tradition at the Osolo palace, the Rotary philosophy of how we think people should relate with themselves. Also we will be donating some chairs to Isolo Comprehensive High School, and our major projects for this year will be in two fold, one, we will be looking at a block of classrooms for Ansar ud deen primary school, working with Isolo General Hospital to have a proper paediatric ward for children where after undergoing operations they can have toys to play with other children, so they do not feel detached from people, and that is apart from the incubator that we want to give to the hospital. We are also looking at partnership with other Rotary Clubs for a Malaria Centre somewhere in Lagos Island, closer to the general hospital where people can get proper education on malaria and its treatment and prevention as well. Now we have been able to kick polio out of Africa, so we should try also to kick malaria out.

And your advice for newcomers to the industry?

Well for those that are young in the industry, there are lots of potentials in the industry, but for those who have passion for what they do, you can't see the money when you start, if you are all about the money, you cannot last, so it has to be about passion for what you do, love what you do, challenge the status quo. Don't always agree with your boss, because that is why the guy is paying you. He is expecting you to think out of the box. If your ideas are ignored, don't feel deterred. In the long run, he will be thankful that someone was thinking for him. Be strong and be ready to make the best out of whatever you are doing.