Our hospitality offerings are the best anywhere in Nigeria – Ikogosi GM

Since its emergence as the new concessionaire of the Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort and Conference Center, in Ekiti State, Glocient Hospitality, the hospitality arm of Cavista Holdings, has turned things around with its sustained investments in expansion, facility upgrade, product innovation, preservation and enhancement of the pristine nature and human capital development.

In this interview, Lanre Sharafa Balogun, the general manager, speaks to Obinna Emelike on the ongoing expansion projects, especially the Nature Park, Tree House, Presidential Villa, the impact of the minister’s visit and endorsement of the resort’s products, occupancy, MICE among others.

What are the major developments at the resort in the last one year?

A lot has happened in terms of positive developments in our resort in the last one year.

The last time you came here was about June 2024. Then we were working on the forest park, the boardwalk for the spring, the cleaning and the maintenance of the upgrade of the spring source. All these areas have been completed now. In fact, the forest park is still not 100 percent complete.

We are having a basketball court, a volleyball court, and a five-a-side football pitch. The foundation of the basketball court has been completed. For the screening and the painting of the courts, we are trying to look at the weather, because we need one week to execute that and the paints are quite expensive. So, we don’t want to paint now because they are synthetic paints.

We want it to really look good when we are done with the painting. Again, the perimeter fencing for the forest park? I do not know if you have walked through the forest park. You see the fencing that you have here. It’s different from the other one on that side. Our goal is to use that fence to complete the perimeter. So, that is what we have been doing. We also just completed the presidential villa, which was launched by Hannatu Musawa, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy.

It would interest you to also know that the Camp A, if you remember, we had 92 rooms at the resorts. So, work has commenced on 32 rooms. Camp B and Camp C have 60 rooms. This place has 43 rooms and the other has the difference that makes it 60. So, for the Camp A, which has 32 rooms, we are working on the road network as we speak. So, once the drainage for the road network is completed, construction will start in the 32 rooms in Camp A. So, that is where we are for now.

Read also: Ikogosi Resort partners with Ekiti State to promote cultural tourism

When will the 32 rooms be ready?

So, our goal is to at least do 50 percent of those rooms by December. We don’t want to rush the rooms and we know that we are getting to the point that the rooms available are not enough for the demands we are getting. So, we intend to complete about 16 rooms of the 32 rooms by December 2025. For us, that is a given. Then, by the middle of next year 2026, our goal is to have completed the other 16 rooms. So, all in all, we have 92 rooms.

How has business been, especially occupancy?

The truth of the matter is that occupancy in a festive period like Easter, the demand is way above the capacity that we have. In other times, like during the week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, occupancy is quite low, which is why we are partnering with tour operators. Because the last time you were here, I spoke about MICE, which is Meetings, Incentive, Conferencing and Events. We are partnering with those organisations that have MICE businesses, so that we can bring down businesses here. That way, once we stabilize the partnership and they begin to understand Ikogosi, then from Thursdays to Mondays to Sundays, our business is very good.

So, we are looking at about 60 percent. We are doing better than a lot of businesses in Lagos and Abuja from our numbers. But we believe that the product we have is the best anywhere in Nigeria. So, we believe that we should be doing 90 percent occupancy, that is our target. We will not rest until we get to the 90 percent occupancy, which is the target the management has given to us. And we also believe that Nigeria itself is a huge country with about 220 million people. We are just trying to sell it to 100 people, it is less than 0.5 percent of Nigeria that we believe can afford. And also we have been losing some businesses because we don’t have room advantage. People are tired of the hustle and bustle of Lagos, but when they come here, there is serenity, the place is calm, it is peaceful. It is a good location for MICE. So, we need to have more rooms to accommodate them.

What is the place of MICE in your business?

MICE is actually our mainstay, but I am saying for us to fill those other three or parts of the days, we need to have more MICE businesses to fill those places. We have people coming in on weekends. Organisations want to come on weekends, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, some Mondays, but Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, those days are low on occupancy. It is not that we don’t have occupancy. Compared to weekends, weekends are always very, very busy.

Apart from MICE, is there focus on attracting leisure market?

We are working with tour operators. They organise leisure travels for people that want to go on holiday in destinations like this. We are working with a lot of them. Some days in those periods of the week, we still get 120 guests but it is not consistent like the weekends. Weekends are always a challenge for us. By 2025, we may even have more rooms after the 32 rooms, because we are losing revenue by not having enough rooms. The way our business runs, what you do is called average occupancy rate. Once you have that average occupancy rate and you are making enough revenue to cover your overhead and salaries and have some savings for your investors, you are good to go.

How stable is your product now?

When we started, it was very, very difficult. Because don’t forget, in our society, there is what they call technical assistance. Technical assistance is, you sit down and understand the products you want to go into, the business you want to go into. You need to observe the electrical infrastructure, the architectural infrastructure, all the power infrastructure. This place was very, very challenging. We did not have resources for the drawings and it took us a while. So, it was very difficult getting up to speed. But now the stability is there. You cannot even compare it at all. You can see for yourself. The stability is there, the supply chain has been finalized. It is like a well-oiled machine now. It is very easy. What we need is expansion.

Is security a big concern for?

Security is super. Do not forget that we are privileged to be in Ekiti State. We know that Ekiti is a relatively safe state. We have never had issues about security at all in this part of Ekiti. That is a major driver. One of our major marketing strategies is that Ekiti is secure and peaceful. We have a relationship with all the security agencies in the country. They support us in terms of security and so forth.

How does the commissioning of the Presidential Villa by the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy impact your business going forward?

We are Glocient Hospitality, and Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort and Conference Center is the first hospitality asset that will be partnered with by the state government to manage and develop. The importance of the visit of the minister, is huge. That is going to give us a very massive boost. It gives us visibility in the markets. What do I mean by visibility? For the minister, I am not sure she has visited any other hospitality asset in Nigeria since she became minister. I am not aware that she has visited any. As far as I know, this is the first hospitality product or tourism asset that she has visited in Nigeria. That will give us a lot of exposure, and as a destination, we want to be top on the mind of all the major businesses, MDAs, and government parastatals. We know the government agencies have staff retreats, training, and team bonding. We have all the facilities here in this environment.

They will be here without distractions.

A lot of people come here and say, this place is under-reported, if not for the support we get from the media. We are making a lot of efforts in social media and the print media. So when you have a minister visiting your resort or your property, giving you that kind of leverage, it is a very, very positive one. We want to milk as much as we can, the opportunity given to us by the minister. At the moment, we are trending on social media that the minister is visiting all the Ikogosi Resort. We have been getting inquiries on how to get to Ikogosi. Do you have facilities to move us from our location – Lagos, Abuja, Akwa Ibom, and Port Harcourt? This is what we do regularly. People fly to Akure, we pick them up from Akure.

We even pick people from Lagos or Abuja. It is going to give us a lot of exposure, which is what we want to be – at the top of the minds of people. You cannot get a better marketing opportunity than having a member of the President’s administration to visit the resort. Also, the story behind the Ikogosi, because this was a completely dead asset that nobody was interested in. Our leadership, under our chairman, John Niyi-Olajide, thought that this place can be revived even after being discouraged by people that he should not go into it. You do not have too many Nigerians that have the experience to turn around moribund assets like this. But we are all here to see what is going on. We have seen the transformation. It has been a heavy investment that has been put here. It is going to continue because this is still a construction site. You can see activities going on. I am sure if you go around, you will see building materials stacked.

Read also: Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort lures lovers with nature, romantic retreat

What about other facilities like a golf course?

We are a strategic organistion. We have a master plan, which we religiously and intentionally approach step by step. Our first focus is to provide accommodation, the living area, and the conference. If you are in MICE business, what you focus on is accommodation and the conferencing area. That way, when you bring in people here, they have space to stay, they have a restaurant to dine, and they have space for their conference facility. Next up is to do the high traffic area, entertainment area, like the tree house, the forest bath, the pool enhancement, the environment, the amphitheater, for people to get engaged. After doing all that, upgrading your kitchen and all that. The reception is not up yet that is why you see that we have a temporary reception area. Before mid-2026, we would have completed the reception, and it is going to be a world-class reception. After that, we will move to the golf range. A range is not as elaborate as a major golf course, because of our topography. We have a space for the range, which will be cleared after we have enhanced and transformed those areas that I just mentioned.

Are you still going to build a helipad?

Like I said, we are a strategic business. The helipad will be done by us for our guests to land, but we have a temporary solution in conjunction with the state. There is a primary school which has a large space for landing. We had the Oni of Ife land there during his last visit for the commissioning of the Tree-House.

What measures are in place to preserve the ecosystem while expanding the resort?

Just a typical example for you. I don’t know if you have been to the Tree-House. If you observe that at theTree-House, no tree was cut down. We actually built the Tree-House around the trees without cutting any tree. That way, we want to keep the balance of the ecosystem. In fact, if you look at some trees, they just die a natural death because you will be arrested if you cut down any tree. Everywhere around here, you see trees growing. If you were attentive, there was a power breech a few minutes ago. It is the bamboo that fell on the protection wire.

We have that a lot, so what we do is to cut it a bit, trim it so we don’t have bamboo falling all over. They grow very, very rapidly. We have them in abundance and we preserve them. Even our spring, we still maintain the path. At night, you see monkeys come around. In fact, part of our goal in the long run is to have a mini zoo around for people to see wild animals around here. We are also having what we call an agro-tourism space where all the vegetables that we eat are being grown here. We have a yam farm already. We have watermelons. The yam is grown and harvested. We do not buy the yam that we consume.

If money was not a challenge and politics was not standing in the way, what would you immediately want to do or see happen here?

The most important thing we want to see is accessibility. We do not have control over it. The major challenge we have is driving from Ibadan to Ikogosi. We need the support and partnership of the government in making the road more accessible. That way, it will automatically drive traffic for people coming around here. That will really help tourism, not only in Ikogosi, but all over the country. If you know that you can start your car and get to Ikogosi in less than three hours, why won’t you come to Ikogosi? You can close from work at 4pm in Lagos and decide to drive down. There are others things we have dealt with. First, when we got here, there was no power for almost a decade.

But in less than eight months, with the government’s support, we were able to run a dedicated line from Ilawe to Ikogosi. Do not forget that this is a government asset. But the investment that went into it, there is no dime of government in it. This is a pure private investment. What the government has done under the leadership of Abayomi Oyebanji, is to provide the enabling environment. No hiccups, no stress. Not like in other states where you are building and somebody is coming with one law to stop what you are doing. Never, ever. That has been very important and the government has been a great partner.

Do you have areas that operate on technology?

Let me just give you a little bit of background. Glocient Hospitality is the hospitality arm of Cavista Holdings. Cavista Holdings has interest in technology, fintech, agriculture, and hospitality. We have a dedicated technology company. When we got here, there was no sign that technology ever existed here. All our systems are linked together. All our access points, revenue generating points, the forest bar, the tree house, the restaurant, the laundry, the pool area, the front office. Without technology, we would not be able to capture revenue.

The way the country is, if you don’t do proper revenue capturing, it is like you are pouring water in a basket. We have what we call Property Management System, (PMS). It is linked together with our stock. As you are stocking, you are entering the data. As it is going out, you are seeing your stock level. That translates to revenue because every item comes with a cost. Let’s say you have 100 bottles of Hennessy. You use 20, so there should be a record of revenue of 20. The ones that you have that are yet to be consumed is also money. So that way, at every point in time, you have this cycle going around being managed by the PMS. So, technology is what is helping us in seeing the figures. We have a target to meet at the end of every month. As you are working, you are seeing a reminder of what your target is. And if you are exceeding the target, you can see by how much, by how many percentage you have exceeded. So, technology is what is driving this business.

What are the highlights of the partnership with the ministry on Destination 2030?

In a very brief summary, it is a partnership that involves the collation of data for all hospitality assets in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That partnership is collating data for one, understanding and having a proper number of the hospitality and tourism assets we have in the country. I was made to understand during the course of planning for this partnership that there are some sand dunes in Yobe State that I have never heard of before.

There is a place that birds from all over the world, converge in Nigeria, that I have never heard of before. Putting all these assets together, collating them, educating the world about this, will bring more revenue to the country because people want to see these destinations.

For us as a country, the government is losing a lot of revenue. There are hospitality businesses that generate in excess of N2 billion every month in revenue. The government may not even know that they exist. But if we want to make ourselves a developing country like other countries, all these assets must be known and there will be opportunity for the government to get levies to be plough back into tourism and the economy to further enhance and improve infrastructure, like the road we are talking about. If it is properly managed, the revenue that we generate can also be used to fix the roads, fix technology assets, and provide CCTV cameras for safety and security. That is the partnership that Cavista Technologies is having with them.

What is your projections for business for the remaining part of the year?

By December, the picture I have in my mind is that I will have a minimum of 16 rooms in Camp A. So, in total, I will be having 76 rooms. I wish I could have up to 150 rooms to be able to take advantage of Detty December. The frustration is that you are turning down businesses, and also turning down people. People are ready to pay heavily but you are turning them down. It is quite frustrating. So, the picture is that I want to be able to accommodate more people as much as we can, for them to experience this nature’s gift to Africa.