Tuesday Sep 09, 2025
Tuesday Sep 09, 2025
Monday, 8 September 2025 02:37 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
From left: Hospitality and Hotel Management Consultant Brian Winston Joseph, Colombo Dockyard Chairman Lalith Ganlath, Cross River State, Nigeria former Governor Benedict Ayade, Ariya Food – Tradlanka Agricultural Enterprises Managing Director Prasad Vithanage, Tulip Hotels and Restaurants Managing Director Chandra Mohotti and Honorary Consul General of Sri Lanka in Nigeria, Govindasamy Vijeyachelvan
Lawyer and Cross River State, Nigeria former Governor Benedict Ayade, was in Sri Lanka last week to explore investment opportunities in several verticals.
He visited the Colombo Dockyard PLC (CDL) and Tradlanka Agricultural Enterprises Ltd. (Ariya Food), as well as several hospitality schools, to explore the possibility of forming joint ventures.
Ayade said that he is seeking to formulate an agreement with Colombo Dockyard to have ship repairing facilities at several ports in Nigeria. “We are looking at a joint venture with CDL.”
Ayade, a leading business magnet in Nigeria, also owns two three-star hotels and is building a 400+ rooms five-star hotel in Nigeria, which is to open early next year.
“Sri Lankan hospitality standards are very high, and hence we want to train some of our staff in Colombo. We have signed an agreement with veteran hotelier and former Ceylon Hotel School Chairman Chandra Mohotti to open the first Nigerian Sri Lanka Institute of Hospitality Management in Colombo,” Ayade said.
“Initially, we will provide practical training to Nigerian hospitality students in Colombo star-class hotels. The second stage would be to acquire a star-class hotel for this purpose and also promote tourism,” he added. “With more focused promotions, high-end Nigerian tourists could be attracted to Sri Lanka, and he will also open a travel arm in Nigeria for this purpose once he acquires the hotel in Sri Lanka.”
He said that Nigeria lacks a variety of rice, and he is looking at the expertise of Ariya Food to introduce new species of rice to Nigeria.
“Initially, we hope to import new varieties of rice to Nigeria and then look at opening up a tissue culture laboratory to produce rice seeds with Ariya Food to process them in Nigeria.”
Ayade said some of the current fruit and vegetables in Sri Lanka are of high quality and taste, and will come to an agreement with Ariya Food to import some of them to Nigeria from the end of November.
Ariya Food is already exporting Sri Lankan fruits and vegetables to the Gulf via leading supermarket chains like Lulu and Carrefour, and hence, they could channel these exports via Dubai.
