The American hospitality giant, American Best Hotel Resort and Conference Centre (ABHRCC), has disclosed its plan to turn the Gateway Hotel in Nigeria's southwestern city Ota into a five-star hotel, Lagos-based Punch newspaper reported on Monday.

The U.S. conglomerate, which has just secured the concessioning of the Ogun State-owned hotel, plans to invest about 12 million U. S. dollars in the transformation of the business within the next three years.

Speaking at the valedictory service for about 150 disengaged staff members of the organization, the Chairman of the ABHRCC, Wale Kalejaiye, said the company's desire is to ensure brand parity within its chain.

"Our vision here is to run a five-star hotel that will be among the leading hotels in the country and we don't want to compromise that," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The Group Managing Director of Gateway Holdings Limited, Alhaji Adegboyega Isiaka, contended that the state has taken the best option of concessioning the three hotels in Ota, Abeokuta and Ijebu Ode for 25 years in order to stop its track record of losses.

Isiaka said that the state had held extensive consultations with the workers' representatives on how the state government intended to help them to settle down to life outside the services of the hotels.

Ogun State locates in the southwestern part of Nigeria. It is one of the country's industrial states and tourism destinations.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2008)