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Despite the slowdown in Nigeria's economy resulting from plunging commodity prices, growth in the hospitality industry in the country has remained strong. A new report by W Hospitality Group, Hotel Chain Development Pipeline Survey, has shown that new hotels in the development pipeline in Nigeria are up 20 percent from last year's figure. About 61 hotels are to be built in Nigeria in 2016 with a total number of 10,222 rooms.

The hotel development projects in Nigeria account for 16 percent of the total pipeline in Africa in 2016. The Hotel Chain Development Pipeline Survey provides data on hotel development across the continent. More than 64,000 rooms are in the continent's pipeline in 2016 from 36 hotel chains and 86 brands. This is an increase of almost 30 percent from the previous year, according to the W Hospitality Group survey.

For sub-Saharan Africa, the development pipeline for 2016 is 42 percent higher than the hotel development projects for last year. The number of North Africa's new hotel projects is expected to rise by 7.5 percent this year.

“The evidence from our survey is clear – investors remain confident about the future of the hospitality industry on the continent," said Trevor Ward, Managing Director at W Hospitality Group. "Even when pummelled daily by low commodity prices, exchange rate problems, political challenges and poor infrastructure, Africa remains resilient.”

Global hotel chains, which previously did not show much appetite for Africa, are ramping up investment on the continent. In the 2009 inaugural survey by W-Hospitality, there were 19 international and regional hotel chains with a pipeline of 144 hotels and less than 30,000 rooms on the continent. The figure has grown to 365 hotels with over 64,000 hotel rooms in 2016.  

Nigeria remains the country with the most rooms in the pipeline. Angola has displaced Egypt in second place with 7,560 hotel rooms. Angola is the country that has shown the greatest growth in 2016. In July last year, AccorHotels signed a deal to build 50 hotels with around 6,200 rooms, all of which are under construction. In September, a UK-registered investment company, GoldenPeaks Capital Holdings, signed a contract to build two and three-star hotels in all 18 provinces of Angola over the next three years at a cost of about $1.2 billion.

Other countries in Africa among the top ten based on hotel rooms are Egypt (6,660), Morocco (5,681), Algeria (3,263), Tunisia (2,976), Kenya (2,956), Ethiopia (2,460), South Africa (2,058), and Senegal (1,943).

Mauritania has its first three branded hotels under construction. The Hilton chain, which opened its first property in Chad in January 2015, will make its debut in Botswana this year.