Event venue owners’ association berths in Lagos

The Association of Venue Owners Lagos Nigeria (AVOLN) has berthed to standardise activities in the hospitality industry.The umbrella body for venue and event centre owners, according to the president, Wemi Jones, was conceived in September 2016 after a meeting in Lekki to boost service delivery as well as accountability and advocacy in that strategic sub-sector of the nation’s economy.

During the media launch in Lagos, Jones noted that members’ businesses were being adversely affected by the economic situation in the land manifest in the dwindling disposable incomes of their prospective clients.

He regretted that despite the unfavorable development that had forced them to crash prices, they were still being made to pay high charges by regulatory bodies whom he accused, had effected 100 per cent upward review of their takings.

The AVOLN boss claimed that operators pay as much as 15 different taxes and levies to federal, state and local council authorities.He said: “Some of our regulatory agencies have done a 100 per cent increase on some of our obligations to them.”

Jones, however, sought meetings with the concerned regulators with a view to thrashing out the issue. He noted that multiple taxation was negatively impacting on their operations.

He pledged the association’s resolve to play actively in actualising Governor Akinwunmi Ambode administration’s dream of making Lagos a choice of investors and a mega city of reckoning.

In her goodwill message, the Director, Administration and Human Resources, Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), Mrs. Arinola Kola-Daisi, promised that the issue of multiplicity of taxes would be adequately addressed by the agency.

She disclosed that the service had automated tax collection to check noticeable lapses, just as the director pledged the agency’s willingness to partner with the new association all times.