AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
Friday, January 12 was a memorable day for team members of Kakanfo Inn and Conference Centre, Ibadan, Oyo State as the management of the hotel took time out to celebrate its outstanding personnel.
The event was colourful and refreshing as music blended with relaxation and dance at the place where friends and family members of the staff of the leading hotels converged to celebrate, relax and reflect on activities.
The occasion came alive as the MC churned out compelling musical tracks that drifted many into dancing. The attendees had a nice time with drinks and different range of cuisines being served.
The Chairman of Kakanfo Inn and Conference Centre, Adedamola Are, and the General Manager, Rita Njokede, backed up the moderator in a bid to keep the atmosphere warm.
The reward time was the highpoint of the occasion as outstanding members of staff took turns to receive diverse categories of awards for outstanding performances in 2023.
The chairman informed the audience that the award process was keen and thorough with merit being the main factor used in determining the winners.
In an interview with Oyo Reporters on the sidelines of the award ceremony, Adedamola Are said, “This event is to appreciate our fantastic team members for their contributions to our success in 2023, to recognize and motivate them towards a challenging 2024.”
On what distinguished the workers at Kakanfo Inn and Conference Centre from others, Adedamola Are said, “First of all, we have a very diverse workforce. We are in Ibadan but our staff is representative of every geopolitical zone in Nigeria – all six. Two, we have a very experienced leadership team.
“We have our chefs from top hotels – Eko Hotels. Our Food and Beverage Manager came from The Lillygate in Lekki, Lagos; we also got our General Manager from The George while our Rooms Division Supervisor came from Lillygate. This is a cohesive unit; it has taken years to build this team. They are very diverse, skilled, exposed and experienced and they are some of the best in the country.
“Collectively, whether it is in food and beverage, housekeeping, maintenance, security, the front office, this is a very diverse, experienced and skilled team and they work very well together in harmony.”
On the method of sustaining the business, he said, “We continue to reinvent ourselves, we focus on our customers and we continue to build on what is most important at the time.
“Right now, our interest is on building a focused team and paying attention to details. Our priority is on reinventing ourselves with the introduction in 2024 of what we call the K Collection. When you look upstairs, you will see a lot of disruptions, that is our luxury line under construction.
“We are going to focus on the elite cadre which we call the K Collection. We have services directed towards NGOs, which is the big chunk of our business, as well as the corporate segment. I still maintain that there are many hotels in Ibadan, 450 to be precise, we are the only hotel at this time that I am aware of that caters for every segment – luxury, basic , NGO, corporate, leisure all gamuts. And, we have all the facilities for that. Even when it doesn’t come to rooms, when it comes to food and beverage, outdoor eating, indoor facilities, banquets, outdoor catering, lunch delivery, we cover the whole spectrum and we are catering to people’s personal needs.
“As long as we do that, even if one segment goes down another exists, so we are diverse in our structures, services, amenities and offerings.”
In spite of the biting economy in the land, Adedamola Are assured the customers that “Kakanfo still keeps to the guidelines. Every five years, we are going to replace our soft goods: the beddings, the mattreses, pillows, the curtains, chairs and the major inventories. Every 10 years, we will replace our hard goods which is our beds, furniture fixtures and the ACs. Now, in our K Collection, we are going to replace our televisions from 32 to 43 inch televisions, we are changing our ACs and we are going to focus on efficiency and energy control.
“If you are going to build and sustain a business, you can’t take all your profit and run. You have to plough it back into the business. So, we are going to stick to what has worked for us. We are 35 years old, and we believe this is just the beginning. We would continue to reinvest a percentage of our profits back into our asset and continue to improve it. And that would happen every single year.”
He advised that the three tiers of government should take a queue from the success story of Kakanfo Inn and Conference Centre by investing and reinvesting in the country for the good of all rather than paying lip service or giving emphasis to personal gains for having access to power and public resources.
Says Adedamola Are, “You have to invest in everything that you build. You have to maintain everything that you build. You have to sustain everything that you create.
“If you don’t maintain it, you can’t sustain it. When they plan for project, whether it is the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, whether it is a major bridge or railway line, create an adequate budget, not just to build the infrastructure, but to continue to rehabilitate it whether it is at five-year or 10-year intervals, and not just build and walk away.
“So, it is the same philosophy; the same thing we are doing in business. If we do not rehabilitate this business, it would fall apart. If you go to London, Paris or New York, you would see hotels that are over 100 years old. The building is the same as they were built 100 years ago, but they continuously rehabilitate the inside. They continue to renovate, modernize and improve the structures, making them safer and by complying with the present that day heakth and safety codes.
“That is what we do; the government can do the same thing in every aspect; whether it is an airport, the railway, in transportation, the roads, anything at all. That is my biggest takeaway for sustainability.”
